


Bonds of Trust

by MissieMoose



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Friendships, Enemies to Friends, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Fuck The Russo Brothers, Gen, Learning to trust, Major Original Character(s), Marvel Cinematic Universe - Freeform, Marvel Universe, Multi, OT3, Original Character-centric, Polyamory, Self Confidence Issues, Slow Burn, Threesome - F/M/M, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-03-06 14:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 38,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18853237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissieMoose/pseuds/MissieMoose
Summary: For nearly ten years, Lucifina Aza did her best to stay on the down-low while running from her mother's killers. But a handful of incidents over the years unknowingly put her on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar and made her a candidate for the Avengers Initiative. Tired of being homeless--but filled with plenty of caution--she reluctantly agrees to join the team when Fury manages to track her down and tell her about the danger Earth is in.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I just wanted to give new readers a heads up that Lucifina's 'outer voice'-aka, how she physically speaks-is meant to be broken, imperfect English. I've based her speech off a Swedish Exchange student I knew back in high school. She *will* be getting better at English throughout the story, though, so she won't always have the accent. I'm aware that writing out accents is usually frowned upon, but in Luci's case, her accent is part of her identity, so I'm just rolling with it. 
> 
> With that said, I hope you enjoy the story! If you do, feel free to leave a review! :)

**_Thursday, April 26 th, 2012. Seattle. 9 days before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

Lucifina hugged herself as she walked down the busy street. Despite the moments of sunshine poking out through the clouds, it was still spring in Seattle--the wind, blowing in from Puget Sound, was still quite a bit on the chilly side. And the fact that it had rained during the night didn’t make things any warmer, either; her hoodie did little to chase away the cold.

‘I’ve still got a few dollars left from that contest the other night,’ she thought to herself, coming to a stop at a corner as she and a dozen other people waited for the crossing signal to change. ‘I can probably get a burrito or something before heading to the library. Play my cards right, and I can get three meals out of it.’

Glancing up at the sky, she squinted her eyes slightly as the sun came out from behind a cloud. Against its dreary backdrop of clouds, it seemed to be brighter than normal. The silhouette of a helicopter passed in front of the sun and she sighed, wondering if it was one of the KOMO news-helicopters on its way to some scene of emergency.

The light changed and the small crowd began to make their way across the street. A quiet sigh left her mouth as she looked back at the path ahead, not wanting to trip over anything or run into anyone. Keeping an eye out for any restaurants, she felt her stomach beginning to grow angry at the lack of food in it.

It wasn’t long until she found a restaurant, however. Ducking inside the warmth of a place called ‘El Chupacabra’, she lightly rubbed her arms as the warmth brought out a plethora of goosebumps. Being that quiet time of day between lunch and dinner, the restaurant was relatively quiet. A hostess looked up as Lucifina entered, putting on a pleasant smile.

Lucifina noticed that a bit of the pleasantness faded when the woman got a better look at her.

“Hello, just one today?”

“ _Ja_ , but am just placing to-go order,” she replied, her voice a bit on the quiet side.

The woman nodded, the wariness still in her eyes. “What would you like to order, miss?” She pulled out her order pad and a pen.

“Ah…” Looking up at the menu, she found the burrito section. “Large vegetarian burrito, please. No sour cream or guacamole, please.” As she spoke, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small wad of cash.

Seeing that Lucifina had money and wasn’t trying to steal someone else’s to-go order, the hostess seemed to ease up a bit and the friendliness returned to her eyes. “That’ll be seven fifty-seven,” she said, tapping some numbers into the screen of the register.

As she counted out the money, Lucifina inwardly swore—she had exactly eight dollars. ‘Doesn’t make for a very big tip,’ she thought, handing the money over. As she was handed the change, she slipped it into the little tip jar before searching her bag for any other loose change or small bills. Finding none, she felt a pang of guilt in her stomach. ‘America really needs to do away with tipping and allow their servers to get a decent wage…’

Standing there, she glanced over at the main dining room, where a handful of diners were seated at random tables. There was what looked to be a young couple and their toddler, a group of four elderly persons heatedly discussing the latest Mariners game, and a group of (probably) college kids sharing a few large plates of food. The sight and smells of all the food made her stomach all the more demanding for food.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had had a meal that large.

A sigh left her mouth and she shook her head before turning away from the sight. Not long after, the hostess returned with a small, plastic bag that held her piping-hot burrito. Thanking the woman, she took the bag and left.

‘Now to find somewhere to eat…’

Making her way down the street once more, she started to head towards a nice park she had been frequenting: Lincoln Park. As she walked, she tucked her meal safely away in her bag; it would stay warm in there, surrounded by her spare shirt and pants. Glancing back up at the sky, she found the sun hidden by a cloud—and the small helicopter still circling the city.

‘Must be a slow news day,’ she thought, ‘or it’s one of those touring helicopters.’

Somewhere in the city, sirens began to blare; the sound was so common in cities of Seattle’s size, however, she didn’t give them a second thought. Instead, her mind wandered to how she had hoped her little brother had returned her email and that she could find somewhere decent to make shelter that night. And, of course, how she was going to enjoy the hell out of that burrito in her bag.

_‘Child, the sirens grow nearer.’_

Pausing in mid-step, Lucifina tilted her head as she listened to the sirens. They were, indeed, getting closer— _rapidly_ closer. Turning around, she could see about six police cruisers racing up the street. Nearly a block ahead of them were two people on a racing-style motorbike. The driver was weaving their way in and out of traffic while the passenger was reaching for something at their side.

Screams broke out and people started ducking for cover as the passenger lifted a semi-automatic shotgun. They turned, firing the gun at the police cars behind them, but taking no care to aim. Lucifina watched as bullets tore through the windshields and sides of civilian vehicles. Injured drivers rammed into other drivers as they slammed on the breaks.

A wall of cars now separated the police from the motorbike.

Lucifina’s eyes narrowed. Darting in front of a parked car, she removed her bag and started to spin it like a bola. She looked through the windows of the car, watching as the motorcycle came closer and closer—

She let go of her bag, watching it soar through the air with perfect timing. As the motorbike zoomed by, her bag slammed into the driver’s face. There hadn’t been enough force to do any damage, but it worked to distract the driver enough to lose control of the bike and dump it in the middle of the road. Pinned between the bike and the asphalt, the two skid many yards down the street.

Lucifina ran into the street. Snatching up her bag, she squeaked as bullets started to whizz past her. She threw herself behind another parked car and peeked out from behind it. The driver and passenger had managed to unpin themselves.

The passenger, having seen Lucifina duck behind the car, started running towards her.

Crouching, she crept her way around to the side of the car just in time to miss a hail of bullets. She hid behind the tire as the windows above her shattered from the bullets and showering her with bits of glass.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are, you plucky _bitch_!” the shooter snarled, his voice a bit muffled by the full-face helmet he wore.

Lucifina threw her bag away from her yet again. The shooter instinctively fired his gun at it, thinking it to be the woman. Finding himself wrong, he growled and stormed around the car.

But there was no one there.

He swore, about to turn around when something slammed into the gun. He let go of it in surprise and watched as it went flying, landing yards away. Turning, he was in time to see the sole of Lucifina’s boot slam into the visor of his helmet. The force had been enough to crack the plastic, but not shatter it. It did leave his vision badly obscured, though he was able to see well enough to catch Lucifina’s foot as it came towards his helmet a second time.

She squeaked as he yanked on her leg, making her fall backwards. She caught herself on her palms, grunting as her head slightly bonked against the windshield.

“You are going to pay for this, bitch,” the man snarled. Still having a hold of her leg, his free hand pulled the helmet from his face.

Lucifina quickly glanced at the sky as she heard the sound of helicopters approaching.

“ _Skit_ ,” she grunted.

She wriggled her caught let, managing to twist it around enough to hook her foot around his limb. With a sharp yank, she brought him towards her. As she did such, she slammed her other foot into his gut. He doubled over, wheezing in pain as Lucifina rolled off the car.

Snatching up his fallen helmet, she swung it against the back of his head. His face bashed into the hood of the car before he slumped sideways, unconscious.

As she stood upright, she found the motorbike’s driver running for the gun. Swearing to herself again, she dropped the helmet and raced forward.

It had been a neck-and-neck race, but the driver reached it first.

Her eyes widened as she found the barrel of the gun aimed at her. As the trigger was pulled, she threw herself to the side, but she wasn’t quite fast enough. Some of the bullets tore through her hoodie and jeans, grazing her skin. More pain filled her as her as she hit the ground, the sidewalk tearing open the skin of her palms and knees.

She laid there, prone and oozing blood from her right side. She could hear the sound of the driver’s boots as they stormed over to her. A few seconds later, she shut her eyes as the driver slammed their boot into her side, forcing her to roll over. Despite the pain, she kept her body as limp as possible during the roll.

She knew full well she could end up dead if she didn’t time things right.

As such, she allowed herself to be kicked in the gut a second time. Hearing the driver scoff as they started to walk away, she opened an eye. She saw the upside-down sight of their retreating form and, ignoring all the pain in her body, she slowly rolled over. Getting up, she stayed half-bent over as she hurried after the driver.

The moment she was within reached, she reached out and yanked the gun from the driver’s hands. They hardly had a chance to turn around before Lucifina pointed the muzzle and pulled the trigger. A scream of pain filled the air as the driver fell to the ground, clutching at their shattered knee. They writhed in pain and started to cuss her out, but she didn’t listen.

The news helicopters were starting to circle the area.

She needed to get out of there.

With the gun still in hand, Lucifina ran back down the street. While running, she tugged the magazine from the gun and flung it away from her. As she passed by the original shooter, she found him sitting up and holding his head in pain. Before he could get up, she used the gun like a bat and swung it against his head.

For the second time, he was knocked unconscious.

She dropped the gun on him before racing over to her bag. Large holes had been torn through it by bullets, but she couldn’t care less about the bag itself. Kneeling beside it, she threw it open and dug around inside it. A small, victorious grin came to her lips.

Miraculously, her burrito was unscathed.

Shouts started to approach from the blockade up ahead. Looking up, she could see a group of police rushing towards her, their guns drawn. Behind her, police cruisers were rushing up the road. With police approaching on all sides, she frantically looked around for a place to run.

To her luck, halfway down the block, there was an alleyway.

Lucifina shoved her lunch into the pocket of her hoodie and, abandoning her bag, bolted down the block.

‘I think it’s time to disappear,’ she thought, darting into the alley. She skidded to a halt as she saw a cop car racing down the narrow road.

_‘I couldn’t agree more.’_

Knowing she couldn’t turn back, she continued running at the cruiser. With another bout of good timing, she jumped into the air and gracefully landed on the hood of the car. Inside, the cops started shouting at her as she ran up the windshield and along the roof.

A cop shoved herself out of the window, her gun drawn. But there was no one to aim at. No one above them, no one behind them—

Lucifina had completely vanished, the only sign of her presence being a set of dirty shoeprints on the hood and windshield.

 

 

**_Wednesday, May 2 nd, 2012\. Seattle. 3 days before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

“One hotdog please.”

“What would you like on it?”

“Um. Mustard and—ah, the little tiny pickle pieces? Forgot what are called…” Lucifina felt her cheeks burn as she watched the vendor use a pair of tongs to remove a hotdog from the rotisserie oven.

“Relish,” the man said with a small chuckle. “Would you like sweet or hot mustard, miss?”

“Hot, please.”

As she exchanged her money for the hotdog, she told the vendor to keep the change. She knew it was dumb of her—with how hard money was to come by, she really should be hoarding it. Once more cursing America’s tipping system, she took a bite of her hotdog and went to go find a bench to sit on.

It was actually a bit hard to find a mostly-dry bench to sit on. It had rained the night before and, with most of the benches being under trees, they weren’t able to dry out in the meager amounts of sunlight. While on her search for a spot to sit, she passed by joggers getting in their daily exercise, people walking their dogs, and some photographers taking pictures of the local scenery.

None of them gave her a second look.

When half her hotdog was gone, she finally found a bench that was mostly unoccupied. A man sat at one end, the _Seattle Times_ spread open before him. She sat down on the other end of the bench and brought a knee to her chest, tucking it under her hoodie. A quiet sigh left her mouth before she made to take another bite of the hotdog.

“That was some stunt you pulled the other day.”

She froze as she heard the man’s voice. Glancing over at him, she watched as he folded the newspaper in half, revealing the face of a black man with an eyepatch over his left eye. She swallowed hard and started to get up, but he reached out and grabbed her forearm. Surprisingly, his grip wasn’t tight.

“I’m not here to kidnap you, Aza,” he said, his voice calm and even.

“Then why are being here?” she demanded, her voice shaking ever so slightly.

The man let go of her wrist and, against her better judgement, she stayed where she was. “I’ve been keeping tabs on you, Aza,” he told her. “I gotta say, though: You don’t make it very easy. You’re _very_ good at staying hidden when you want to.”

“Evidently not being good enough.”

His brow rose and a small chuckle left his mouth as he reached into his jacket. “I’m Nick Fury, director of an agency called S.H.I.E.L.D. Stands for—”

“Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,” she finished for him. “Have heard of you.”

“Doesn’t surprise me, since your mother was once a consultant of ours.” He watched as she looked away, a mixture of sorrow and shame coming to her features. “She was a good woman. One of the smartest people out there when it came to astrophysics. Without her, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have some of the technology that we do.” He held out a small object to her; it looked like a smartphone, but its screen was transparent. “As it stands, I have an offer for you.”

She frowned as she took the object from him. As she looked at it, it brought up a screen with her face on it, along with standard information like her full name, date of birth, and country of origin. She swiped to the left only to see news clips from various news outlets around the world play. All the clips had two things in common: Disasters that would have killed dozens of people and her, saving those dozens of people.

Some of the videos were from when she was still just a teenager.

“Really have been keeping the tabs on me,” she sighed, swiping again. This time, it was information about a project labeled ‘Avengers Initiative.’ Her brows furrowed as she read through the document. There was a lot of information being presented, but she knew that she had to do her best to read between the lines—this was _government_ information, after all, and governments loved to phrase things vaguely as possible.

After a few minutes of reading, she looked up at Fury, with a brow cocked. “Am reading this correctly? Are wanting to be making team of skilled peoples to protect _planet_?” she asked. “Not just US?”

“You did read that correctly,” he told her. Reaching over, he swiped the screen twice more so that it displayed a picture of a glowing blue cube. “This is called the Tesseract. It’s an item of immeasurable power and it was stolen from a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility last night by a being calling himself Loki.” He swiped the screen again, showing her the security cam footage from last night’s fight. “Because of him, a war has started between us and whatever army he’s planning on unleashing with the help of that Tesseract.”

“Are knowing where this Loki is coming from?”

“A place called Asgard. You _may_ have heard of it, coming from Sweden and all.” There was a bit of amused sarcasm to his tone. “A person with your unique abilities would be more than a little useful to our team.”

“Even though information provided is saying that initiative was canceled in 2010. So, are either be lying to me or—”

“Electing to ignore a stupid-ass decision by people who _think_ they know what’s best for the world.”

“Is being impossible to be knowing what is truly good for world,” Lucifina murmured. Continuing to watch the security footage play out, she went quiet. She watched as Loki tapped a strange scepter to a man’s chest and her eyes narrowed. Barely noticeable to the naked eye were little bolts of what looked like electricity running through the man’s veins, running up to his brain.

‘You’re tempted,’ she thought.

_‘As are you.’_

‘Then we should do this?’

_‘It is my duty to protect this world.’_

‘ _Our_ duty,’ she corrected. ‘Even if I wasn’t your avatar, I would accept.’

_‘Which is one of many reasons why I chose you to be my avatar.’_

A bit of a smile came to Lucifina’s lips. She looked back to Fury, who had been patiently awaiting her answer. “When are wanting me to be starting?” She held the screen back to him, watching as it took it and tucked it away in one of his pockets.

“Today.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a few devices. “This is your communications ear piece,” he said, holding up what looked like a small, clip-on earring. “You’ll be able to communicate with us and the other Avengers once they get theirs.”

Nodding, she took the ear piece and placed it onto her ear. Her eyes shot open as she felt it suddenly double in length and tighten itself a bit so that it wouldn’t fall off. “…Fanciest Bluetooth have ever seen,” she murmured.

Fury then handed her a rather fancy looking cellphone—at least, she _thought_ it was a cellphone. With the advancements in technology over the last decade, she knew it could be anything. “This a standard issue S.H.I.E.L.D. cellphone. It comes with everything a normal smartphone has and then some. On it, you’ll find the coordinates to where you need to go and the identification you’ll need when you get there.” After handing the phone over to her, he stood up only to reach into his back pocket.

“Is very nice phone,” she murmured. Having only ever used burner phones, Lucifina unlocked the phone with more than a little curiosity. The screen came to life with bright green letters demanding she place her thumb in the center of the screen. As she did so, her thumbprint was scanned and she was granted access to the phone which now looked like a normal cellphone. It had all the usual apps like weather, Google, email, and texting, but there were other apps, she noticed, that bore the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo.

Fury suddenly reached over, holding out some money to her.

She frowned, glancing between the bills and his face. “…Why are giving me money?” Hesitantly, she took it from him.

“To get yourself a proper meal and some new clothes,” he told her, his brow rising. “You’ve been wearing the same clothes for damn near five years, Aza.” He pointed a stern finger at her. “And you best be wearing your new clothes when you arrive, got that?” Before she could answer, he turned and started to walk away.

“Th-thanking you!” she called after him. Counting out the money, her eyes widened in shock—he had given her nearly five hundred dollars. “ _Skit_ …This is being far too much…” she mumbled.

The phone suddenly vibrated and a text appeared on the screen. It was from Fury.

_Keep the change._

_  
_


	2. Chapter 2

**_Wednesday May 2 nd, 2012. Off the eastern coast of the US. 3 days before the Attack on Manhattan._ **

 

She had never seen an aircraft carrier up close, but she knew they were enormous things. Now that she was actually landing _on_ an aircraft carrier, however, Lucifina had quickly come to realize that enormous wasn’t _quite_ the right word: The ship was _gigantic._

As she left the helicopter, she was greeted by the sight of a woman in a navy-blue jumpsuit emblazoned with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the shoulder. Her brown hair was pulled back into a tight bun and she stood with a rather authoritative stance. The woman gave her a wary once-over as she approached.

“Welcome aboard, Miss Aza,” she said, her voice raised slightly so she could be heard over the dying engine of the helicopter. “I’m Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria Hill.” She watched as the younger woman looked around in awe for a moment before motioning for Lucifina to follow her. “You’re the first of the team to arrive, but Romanoff and Banner should be arriving sometime tomorrow. Rogers, too, will be arriving tomorrow.”

Again, the name was vaguely familiar to Lucifina, but she didn’t recognize it. Doing as instructed, she tailed behind the deputy director. “Am afraid am not knowing who they are,” she told her. Going by the information she had read that morning, she figured they were probably master assassins or super-rich geniuses. ‘Wonder if Tony Stark’s going to be on the list?’ she thought. ‘After all, he’s calling himself Iron Man now…’

Maria glanced over her shoulder at her. “Natasha Romanoff is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top agents,” she explained, “and Doctor Bruce Banner is the foremost expert in gamma radiation. He’ll be here only as a consultant.”

She nodded in understanding; the doctor’s name was vaguely familiar to her. “Who else are to be expecting?” she asked.

“We’re hoping for Tony Stark.” As they approached a door, it slid open and the two women walked through it. They were greeted by the sight of a somewhat wide corridor lined with pipes of various sizes and bright, LED lights.

“Kind of was figuring Stark would being one of the members,” she said, more to herself than to Maria. “Him having that fancy suit and all…”

“He originally wasn’t going to be part of the team,” she explained, “since he’s so egotistical and doesn’t work well with others. But desperate times call for desperate measures.” She led Lucifina down a flight of stairs and along another corridor. “Director Fury had ordered a full physical for you, by the way. He wants to make sure that, after being on the run for nearly ten years, you’re not harboring any diseases or ailments.”

“Am supposing he is also wanting better documentation of me,” she stated, her brow rising slightly. “And of other self.”

Maria glanced over at her. “There’s only so much we can learn by news clips.”

She paused in her steps, a frown on her lips. “How can being sure S.H.I.E.L.D. will not be using this information against me?”

“Because we’re not your enemy, Miss Aza,” she replied. “We need your help, yes, but you were free to decline Director Fury’s offer. I know it’s hard to trust an organization like S.H.I.E.L.D., especially after what happened with you and your mother. But I assure you, Miss Aza, we’re not _that_ kind of organization.” She started to walk again, expecting Lucifina to follow.

With a bit of hesitation, Lucifina _did_ follow. ‘I should have known they would want me to do a physical,’ she thought. ‘They barely know anything about me; a physical can give them a better idea of what I’m capable of…’

 _‘What_ is _a physical?’_

‘A medical exam. It’s fairly comprehensive and involves testing your bodily and mental functions as well checking your blood for any sort of diseases or potential warning signs of disease.’ She slid her hands into her pockets and let out a nearly-silent sigh. As much as she was questioning her decision to join the Avengers, she had to admit that wearing clothes that fit and weren’t threadbare was a nice perk of joining.

_‘I can understand why they would want to perform a physical on you, then, but it is unnecessary. You’re a beacon of health.’_

‘I can only assume they don’t know that I can heal myself.’

Before the little voice in the back of her mind could speak again, she was brought into a room where a woman with gingery hair was typing away at a computer. She looked up at the two women, a kind smile on her lips.

“You must be Lucifina,” she said, looking up. “I’m Doctor Evelyn Westbrook. I’ll be the one giving you your physical.” She looked at Maria and gave her a small nod.

“You’re in good hands, Aza,” Maria told her. “Westbrook’s one of our best.” And with that, she left the two women alone in the room.

“Please, have a seat on the table,” Evelyn said, motioning at the exam table in the middle of the room. “Let me just pull up your files…which…” As she looked at the screen, she let out a quiet sigh. “Haven’t been updated since late 2003. Should have expected as much, really.”

Sitting on the table, Lucifina frowned. “Is everyone on this ship knowing who I am and circumstances of life?”

“Not everyone. Just those of us who are having to interact with you and the other soon-to-be Avengers.” She gave her a reassuring smile. “Why don’t we start off by going over the information we _do_ have and getting that all updated? We’ll save the poking and prodding for later.”

Nodding, she let out a quiet sigh. “Is sounding good,” she replied.

Evelyn flicked her finger across the computer screen and the tablet sitting next to her lit up. Lucifina could see that her medical files were now showing on the tablet instead of the computer.

“Whoa…” she murmured, eyes widening slightly. “Have not seeing that before…”

“It’s not exactly tech that’s available to the public just yet,” she chuckled. She then wheeled herself across the room so that she was seated in front of Lucifina. “Now. What is your day of birth and your full name? A dumb thing to ask, I know, but it’s both to make sure you don’t have memory problems _and_ that you’re not an imposter.”

She nodded in understanding. “Am Lucifina Diana Aza and was born August 30th, 1986.”

“Do you have allergies of any kind?”

“Opioids and bees.”

“Do you smoke or have you smoked in the past?”

Her nose scrunched up ever so slightly. “No. Have not done any drugs, drunk in excess, or am being sexually active. Am very boring homeless person.”

Evelyn nodded, quickly tapping away at the tablet screen. “I wouldn’t say that. Not many homeless people can do what you do.” She scrolled down the screen and her brow rose a bit. “According to your files, your mother was three quarters white, one quarter black while your father is half Greek, half Pakistani. Is this correct?” she asked.

“ _Ja_. No health problems on either side of family, aside from fertility issues on mother’s side.”

“Yes, I see that. We’ll go over the fertility issues later, because I see something more important. It says here you were in therapy to recover from an eating disorder around the time of the incident with your mother, but it doesn’t say which disorder it was.”

Her cheeks turned a bit red and she avoided looking at the doctor out of shame. “Was not aware were different types. Only ever knowing it as anorexia.”

She gave Lucifina a pitying look. “There has been a _lot_ of progress made over the last ten years in the studies of eating disorders,” she explained. “Just as there have been with many other things, including mental health disorders—which, as it turns out, _is_ what an eating disorder is.”

Nodding in understanding, Lucifina unconsciously ran her hand through her hair. “Well…if it is helping to be narrowing it down, anorexia was because of ballet. Was always at back of class because instructor said was being too fat, too tall, and not good enough to be in front.”

“That’s horrible,” she said with a frown. “What kind of instructor bullies their students like that?!” Of course, she knew plenty of teachers and instructors out there could be that horrible—especially dance instructors who had specific ideals of what the perfect students looked like. She just hated thinking that there was someone like that teaching _children_.

“An instructor who is also hating brown people,” Lucifina said with a humorless laugh. “Sweden—well, northern Europe in general—like to be saying they’re not racist, but are many, many people who are still being such.” She shook her head and sighed. “Anyway…anorexia was not because of thinking self fat; was because was practicing so much.”

“Then it sounds like you had Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder,” Evelyn told her. “Which…sadly, it seems you’ve fallen back into a bit since going on the run.” She typed a few things into the tablet, pulling up a new screen. “The disorder is mostly characterized by a person simply not eating enough to make up for the calories they’ve burned throughout the day, whether it’s from an inconsistent food source or from a person working out too much.”

Taking in this information, she nodded in understanding. “Was doing best to be eating at least one meal a day. Some times were being harder than others, though.”

“Well, you won’t have to worry about that anymore. Now that you’re part of the team, you’ll have a constant source of income and you’ll be able to eat whenever you like.” She gave her a reassuring smile. “Which I want you to start doing often.”

“Many small meals throughout day consisting of healthy fats?”

“I see you still remember your previous treatment plan,” she chuckled. “Yes, many small meals. Start off slowly so your digestive system can get used to it. After a week or two, start introducing larger meals in the morning. In fact, after we finish up here, I’d like you to go to the cafeteria and eat something if there’s time.”

“Will be doing.”

_‘This doctor seems to care quite a bit about her patients.’_

‘I know,’ she thought in agreement. ‘It’s almost strange—all the doctors I ever knew liked to rush through things.’

_‘Well, I can only hope that the advice and diagnoses she gives to you will be of help. There is only so much your healing can do, after all.’_

She nodded ever so slightly, glancing down at Evelyn as she continued to tap away at the tablet. She had a feeling this appointment was going to take quite a while.

 

* * *

 

**_Thursday May 3 rd, 2012. S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. 2 days before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

Lucifina couldn’t tell if the cafeteria food aboard the ship was actually good, or if it had just been so long since she had a meal that _wasn’t_ a dollar menu item from a fast food joint or a burrito that she _thought_ it tasted good. Regardless, she found herself rather enjoying the muesli and fresh fruit she had been served. As per doctor’s orders, though, she had only gotten a small portion; she would have another small meal in a few hours.

But it was strange, eating a real meal in new, clean clothes after having spent the night in a real bed. A part of her was still paranoid that something was going to happen—that something or someone would come and take it all away from her. It wasn’t until she noticed some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents looking at her strangely that she realized that she had an arm wrapped protectively around her bowl and that she was holding it closer than necessary. With a quiet sigh, she moved her arm and pushed the bowl a bit further from the edge.

_‘You have every right to be cautious, you know. But you’re safe here. These people have given you no reason to not trust them.’_

‘Yes, I know…but I don’t want to stand out more than I already am,’ she thought. ‘Being told I can trust people is one thing. Actually trusting them, however, is an entirely different thing.’ She took another bite of the muesli, still looking around.

Across the room, she could see Fury and Maria walking while discussing something or other. Both looked as intimidating as ever—save for the little box of fruit punch Fury held. As if he could sense her looking at him, he glanced over his shoulder at her.

She quickly looked back down at her bowl, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

 

Once her breakfast was finished, she spent a few hours exploring the ship a bit. She did her best to stay as out of the way as much as possible; this _was_ a working military ship, after all. However, despite the ship’s size, there weren’t many places she _could_ explore—many levels were blocked off due to her security clearance not being high enough.

She was making her way to the deck when she heard the tiniest bit of static in her ear before Fury’s voice spoke. “Aza, do you read me?”

“U-um, _ja_ ,” she replied, touching the earpiece. She felt a little foolish for talking to thin air. “Am reading.”

“Good. Get up here to bridge. There are a few things I want to go over with you before the others arrive.”

“Alright…am being there soon.” Turning around, she headed back towards the front of the ship. She had some difficulty finding it thanks to how similar all of the hallways looked. Eventually, though, she managed to find the right path.

Stepping onto the bridge, she was greeted by the sight of an enormous, two-tiered room. The bottom tier was sprawling with computers and the S.H.I.E.L.D. employees who were monitoring them. A walkway connected the upper tier to an observation platform at the far end of the room, allowing one to look out through a massive wall made entirely out of windows.

Fury stood on the observation platform, his back to her. “Had a bit of trouble navigating your way?” he said, hearing her approach.

Her cheeks started to grow warm again. “Many hallways are looking quite similar, sir,” she replied. Unsure of where to stand, she stayed a little way behind him—until he motioned for her to come forward. She did such, finding herself now standing alongside him.

“Doc Westbrook has given you the all-clear,” he stated, his eye fixed out at the horizon. “Save for that diet of yours.”

She nodded in understanding. “Am hoping that is not being problem…?” She watched as his brow rose ever so slightly.

“If it was, not even I have the balls to argue with Doc Westbrook.” He glanced over at her, his brow still raised. “What you saw was her nice side but don’t let that fool you. She’s one of our top medical professionals and the woman you want cauterizing your wounds during an emergency.”

Not really knowing how to reply to that, Lucifina merely nodded once more.

“Agent Romanoff and Doctor Banner are due to arrive within the hour,” he continued, turning around. He motioned for her to follow. “Captain Rogers will be arriving shortly after. With luck, when this is all over, I’ll be able to convince Cap to help train you with some shield fighting techniques. As for other fighting styles, we’ll have to get some of our agents to help you with that. Agent May may be best—she’s a bit of a hard-ass, but she gets results.”

“Alright,” she murmured, following alongside him. She unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself, finding herself feeling quite self-conscious. “What sorts of fighting will be learning?”

“Mostly hand-to-hand combat,” he told her. “Stuff that’d be useful whether you’re in this form or the other. That way, you won’t have to rely on a messenger bag as a form of defense.”

That made her frown. “How are knowing used bag as such?” she questioned, tone cautious. “News copters weren’t being at scene yet for that part.”

“Like I told you, I’ve been keeping tabs on you, Aza.” As they reached the other end of the walkway, he paused at his control center, reading over the information scrolling across the many screens. “One thing I noticed when reading the reports from your physical yesterday is that you’re not sure what all you can do in your other form.”

She nodded. “ _Ja_ …is because bond with Seraph is not being very strong. She said the more bonding that is being done—”

“Hold up. _Seraph_?” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Who the hell is _Seraph_?”

“Seraph is other form,” she explained. “She is one who chosen me to be her avatar.” She rubbed her arm slightly. “Right now, am still beginner with powers. But as am using them more, am getting stronger with them. The more am getting stronger, the more am able to do. Is…kind of like leveling up in video game.”

He nodded slowly, looking at her with a mixture of skepticism and bemusement. “Well, _that’s_ good to know,” he murmured, typing something out on one of his screens. Lucifina tried to get a look at whatever it was, but she was at the wrong angle to see the screen properly. “What caught my attention from the list of things you _know_ you can do right now, however, is that you said you can control light?”

“Ehh… _somewhat_ can be controlling light,” she admitted. “Is not being for very long, either. Mostly use it for flashen bombs or to be disappearing long enough to get out of sight.”

“That’s all? You can’t make lasers or anything?”

_‘This man is hard to impress it seems…most humans would be left awestruck by your abilities.’_

Her brow rose, an unimpressed look coming to her face. “Have not been able to be studying optics very much,” she told him, voice bland. “Need to be knowing how light works in order to be using it. As such, am too eh…dumb? to be knowing how to be using it to full potential just yet.”

“I wasn’t aware that using magic required a college education,” Fury retorted.

“Magic is just manipulatable science. At least, am thinking that is what magic is being. Am not really sure…” She rubbed her arm again. “Is being very complicated stuff and am not able to be explainen well.”

“You seem to be doing well enough.” He glanced over at her once more. “But, for your sake, I’m changing the subject. I know I told you _who_ the other Avengers are, but I didn’t go into much more detail about who they are and what they can do.” He then pointed over at a conference table where a strange looking tablet lay, a Bluetooth keyboard sitting beside it. The tablet was another one of those transparent screens, only much bigger. “Best get started studying.”

Sitting down, she picked up the tablet and slid it into place on the keyboard. Almost instantly, it came to life, showing her a set of icons, each one bearing the name of a different person: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, and, lastly, Lucifina Aza. With a small shrug, she double-tapped on the icon for Steve Rogers.

As the document loaded, she was met by the sight of some old, black and white photos from what looked like the second world war. The one that first caught her eye had two men in it: Both in their late twenties, though one was shorter with dark hair and a simple shirt while the other was taller with fair hair and seemed to be wearing some sort of emblazoned uniform. They both wore broad grins, as if they were laughing at something. Another picture showed the fair-haired man again, this time in a uniform Lucifina recognized.

‘Captain America…’ she thought, her eyes widening slightly. ‘I _knew_ I knew that name from somewhere. I guess I should have paid better attention in school…’

_‘It’s been many years since you last stepped foot inside a place of learning, child. I think you can be forgiven for not remembering who this man was.’_

‘You may think so, but you don’t know how important he was to world. Thing is, he’s been _dead_ for the last seventy years. Unless they managed to find another guy named Steve Rogers…’ As she had the mental conversation, her eyes skimmed over the information regarding Rogers. ‘Born July 4th, 1918—how fitting—and crashed into the Arctic in 1945…Wait, _recovered_ and _awoken_ in 2011? _Recovered **and** awoken?!_’ As her finger scrolled the page up, her eyes continued to take in the information.

_‘You seem surprised by this information, child.’_

‘To say the least,’ she thought with a small frown. ‘Captain America disappeared in 1945—seventy years ago. And now I’m reading that he’s _alive_?!’

_‘I am certain stranger things have happened, have they not?’_

‘Of course there have, but I can’t really recall anything in my lifetime. Except for you, of course.’ Scrolling further down the page showed her a list of skills that Rogers possessed—it was quite a lengthy list. ‘To be expected, since he’s a super soldier…’

_‘Super soldier?’_

‘Genetically enhanced human. Basically, he’s at the peak of human evolution thanks to science.’

_‘I see.’_

Soon enough, she finished reading Rogers’ file. Exiting it, she tapped on Tony Stark’s file. A lot of it contained information she already knew—Stark was famous, after all, and it seemed like he was _always_ in the media. On top of that, she had met him once before, back when she was a child.

_‘Was he a nice man?’_

‘I suppose. He was more interested in my mother’s work than me. I do remember that he was amused by me using my mother’s high-powered electron microscope to look at moss, though.’ A small smile came to her lips at the memory; she had gotten in quite a bit of trouble for that stunt. ‘She wasn’t too happy about that, but he told her she should be proud that I was interested in science.’ She exited the file and went to open Banner’s file next.

_‘Are you still interested in science?’_

‘I am, but there’s been so many advancements in the field I wanted to pursue that I don’t think I stand a chance of ever catching up.’ She softly sighed as she read about Banner’s work with gamma radiation and how it had affected him. Now, when angry enough, he could turn into a massive green humanoid known as the Hulk.

_‘I wouldn’t say that. You’re an intelligent young woman. With your work ethics and your dedication, I’m certain you could catch up in no time.’_

‘Of course _you_ would say that—you live inside me.’ She sighed again and closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I’m having a hard enough time grasping the fact that I’m suddenly working for a government agency of a country I’m not even a legal citizen of. If I were to try to go back to school, I don’t think I’d last a single semester.’

_‘And how long is a semester?’_

‘Half a year, usually. Huh…Banner’s done work on anti-electron collisions?’

_‘…What are anti-electron collisions?’_

‘I…don’t really know how to explain it, since I barely know myself. I think it has to do with antimatter? I just remember hearing my mother talk about it at one point.’ She swiped to the next slide only to frown as she saw a news clip playing. It showed the Hulk razing a building to the ground.

_‘That…is a terrifying beast. And it comes from a mortal man?’_

‘Gamma radiation is strange stuff.’

As she continued to read through the files, she felt something buzz on her thigh. Her brow rising, she looked down in confusion only to remember that she now had a cellphone. She pulled it from her pocket and unlocked it to find that she had an email from her brother.

Glancing up at Fury to see if he was looking, she found his back to her. Thinking the coast clear, she started to read.

 

_“You found a **job**? Luci, are you sure that’s safe? You **do** remember what happened the last time you got a job, right? Those guys who are after you nearly caught you. I’m not trying to criticize you—I just don’t want you to be in the hands of some bad guys. But if you're deeming it safe enough, then I guess I'm happy you found one. _

_Just **please** be careful, Luci. _

_Though, speaking of the States: I managed to get an internship over there! And you’ll never guess where it’s at. :) Let’s just say it’s somewhere in NYC and they’re impressed by my knowledge of bionics and robotics._

_Dad says ‘hi’ by the way. We both still wish you would visit, but we understand why you don’t. Dad also says he can wire you some money if you need it.”_

A small smile came to her lips as she hit the reply button. Before she could start typing, however, a voice startled her.

“That doesn’t look like studying.”

She looked up, her cheeks growing warm as she saw Fury glancing in her direction. “S-sorry, was just checkening email,” she told him.

He seemed a bit amused by her reaction. “It’s fine, Aza,” he told her. “Romanoff and Banner are landing now. If you’d like to get some fresh air, now’s your chance—Rogers isn’t far behind them. Once he lands, we’re taking off.”

Her head tilted ever so slightly. “Taking off?” she repeated. “But are already being at sea.”

“This ship can do a little more than just float,” he told her, starting to walk past her. “You can keep that laptop, by the way.” Before she could argue, he was gone.

_‘That was rather nice of him, giving you that computer.’_

‘He’s trying to get me to warm up to him,’ she thought, removing the screen from the keyboard. She tucked it into the space beneath the keys before standing up and leaving the bridge. ‘He thinks by giving me stuff, he’s getting me to trust him and S.H.I.E.L.D. more.’

_‘Ah, so he is trying to make himself look like a generous benefactor so, should you ever have any doubts, you would feel guilty.’_

‘Exactly.’

_‘But are you certain that’s what is happening? What if he really is doing this out of kindness?’_

‘I’d like to think it _was_ out of kindness, but…I just have a feeling it’s not. I mean, why wait until now to hire me on if they’ve been keeping tabs on me for years?’ She shook her head as she headed down a flight of stairs and took a left. ‘Or maybe I’m just overthinking things…’

_‘It’s good to be cautious, but being **too** cautious has its own consequences, child. Please do not let your cynicism from past events tilt your judgement for future ones.’_

‘I’m trying not to, Seraph…I really am. Let’s hope meeting the other Avengers changes my mind for the better.’

 


	3. Chapter 3

**_Thursday May 3 rd, 2012. S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. 2 days before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

****

By the time Lucifina had found her room and dropped her laptop off, the other three Avengers had arrived. As she started to make her way towards the bridge, the ship began to shudder slightly and she could hear shouting coming from the lower decks. Her brows furrowed.

‘Is something bad happening?’ she thought, picking up the pace. The people she passed by didn’t seem worried; maybe it was some kind of drill being performed?

Stepping onto the bridge, she was greeted by the sight of three new faces: The tall, fair-haired Steve Rogers; the dark-haired Doctor Banner; and a woman who was only a few years older than her with wavy, chin-length red hair who could only be Natasha Romanoff. They didn’t seem to notice her at first.

“That’s still not going to find them in time,” Natasha was saying.

“You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?” Bruce asked, his hands nervously rubbing together.

“How many are there?” Fury asked, turning to face the group. Seeing Lucifina, he gave her a small nod of acknowledgement.

“Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays,” Bruce told him. “I’ll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?”

“Agent Romanoff,” Fury said, “would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?”

She nodded. “This way, Doctor. You’re going to love it—we’ve got all the toys.” As she and Bruce walked past Lucifina, she gave the younger woman a quick once over, her brow rising. Whether or not that was a good thing, Lucifina didn’t know.

Fury looked over at Steve. “Captain Rogers, I’d like you to meet another one of your teammates,” he said, motioning to her. “This is Lucifina Aza. Aza…I’m sure you already know who this is.”

A small smile came to her lips. “Captain America,” she said, taking Steve’s hand and shaking it when he held it out. “Is nice to be meeting you, sir.”

“Nice to meet you, too, Aza,” he replied, smiling as well. “What kind of abilities are you bringing to the table?”

“For now, she’s codenamed ‘the Angel’,” Fury told him. “That should give you somewhat of an idea.”

At that, Steve raised his brow. “’The Angel’?” he repeated, looking between Fury and Lucifina. “…So, you’re like a messenger from God then?”

She shook her head; she had expected him to think such a thing. “No. May be looking similar, but assure you, am not messenger from that God.” She then looked at Fury. “…Can maybe be having different codename?” she asked, hesitation in her voice.

“What would you like to be called, then?” Fury asked, his brow rising slightly.

“Seraph.”

“Alright then. We’ll call that form of yours Seraph.” He typed something into one of his screens; Lucifina was just barely able to see that it had been her file.

“Thanking you.”

Steve looked back at her. “That accent of yours…Norwegian?”

“Close,” she smiled. “Is Swedish. Better than what most people are guessing. Usually are saying Mexico or Italy.” She tucked some hair behind her ear; she was surprised at how easy it was to talk with Steve. He was an incredibly famous war hero—she thought she’d be feeling little more nervous than what she was.

He nodded in understanding. He was about to say something when a woman came in bearing a tray of food. Lucifina recognized her straight away.

“Doctor Westbrook?” she blinked.

“There you are, Aza,” she said, frowning slightly. She held the tray of food out to her. “You were supposed to eat an hour ago.”

She felt her cheeks starting to grow warm. “Ah, am sorry…must have losten track of time…” she murmured, taking the tray. On it was a bottle of chocolate milk, a hearty-looking sandwich, and a couple of cookies. She moved to sit down at the table so she could eat.

Fury snorted. “Told you she was a hard-ass.”

“Of _course_ I’m being a hard-ass! The poor thing needs to gain a good twenty pounds and I’m not going to let her do it by stuffing her face with McDonald’s.” She shook her head, her ginger ponytail swishing from side to side behind her.

Grabbing the bottle of chocolate milk, Lucifina gave it a small shake. “Am not even liking McDonald’s,” she assured her, her cheeks rather hot by now. “Is gross. Burger King is being _much_ superior.” Twisting the cap off the milk, she took a long drink.

Evelyn raised her brow, her lips pursing into a scolding pout. “ _Very_ funny, Aza.” The doctor then looked over at Steve. She gave him a once-over, an impressed smile coming to her lips. “You’re the healthiest looking fossil I’ve ever seen,” she told him. Before Steve had the chance to reply, she left the bridge.

“Well, that’s the first time someone’s called me a fossil,” Steve said, his brow rising slightly as he chuckled. He, too, moved to take a seat at the table. He gave Lucifina an apologetic look. “…So, I take it you’re recovering from some kind of illness?”

“Not illness, no,” she told him before taking a bite of some fruit. “Have been homeless for long while. Money was being hard to come by. In turn, food was being hard to come by.”

That brought a frown to his face. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

She shrugged. “Was own choice…did it to be keeping family safe.” She disassembled her sandwich so she could spread some mayonnaise and mustard on it. “Am not knowing who, but have being hunted for nearly ten years.”

“Why’s that? Because of your powers?”

“That’s _exactly_ why,” Fury said. “Whoever’s been after her wants to strap her down to a table and dissect her like some sort of science project so they can find the source of her magic. But now that she works for us, we’ll be able to better protect her while she protects the world.” He glanced over at Lucifina as she took a bite from her reassembled sandwich. “With her working for us, we’ll be able to keep a better eye on her than when she was on the run.”

Her brow rose ever so slightly as she chewed. ‘Now _that’s_ something I didn’t really consider…’ she thought.

_‘Perhaps this arrangement will be more beneficial for you than you anticipated.’_

‘It seems to be heading that way.’ She took another bite of her sandwich as Natasha returned to the bridge.

“Huh. I didn’t know we were allowed to eat on the bridge,” she said, taking a seat at the table.

“It’s prescription,” Fury told her. “How did Banner like his lab?”

“He’s already playing with his new toys,” she replied. Leaning back in her seat, she looked over at Steve. “So, Cap…what do you think of this thing?” she asked, motioning at the room around them.

He chuckled, though Lucifina could tell there wasn’t much real humor to the sound. “It’s certainly different from what I’m used to…You can fit a lot more people on these modern ships than back in my day.” From the corner of his eye, he watched as Fury left the bridge, leaving the three of them alone to talk. “And there’s a lot more these ships can do. Like flying and blending into the sky…”

Natasha smirked. “A lot of it is thanks to Howard Stark. Without him, I don’t think we’d be even close to this level of tech. I know S.H.I.E.L.D. is wanting to collaborate with his son, Tony, to see what kinds of improvements can be made.”

“If he’s a Stark, then I’m sure he can make plenty of upgrades.”

“Oh, I _know_ he can. The question is whether or not he’ll agree to it. He kind of stopped making weapons, though. His main focus now is renewable energy and bolstering STEM research.” She looked over at Lucifina, who was halfway done with her sandwich by now. “What about you, Luci?” she asked her. “I bet this is pretty different from what you’re used to, too.”

Her cheeks turned a bit pink as she was called ‘Luci’—she hadn’t been called that in _years_. “ _Ja_ , is being very different,” she replied, using a napkin to wipe her face off. “Have never been onto ship before, so being on one liken this is quite…strange.”

Natasha nodded slowly in understanding as she studied the younger woman. “I’m surprised Nick was able to find you. You’ve very good at blending in.”

“Have been told that before,” she said with a small smile. “Is being partially because of powers. Can essentially cloak myself by refracting light. Can only be doing it for short periods, though.”

“Your fighting style seems pretty interesting, too. What is it? Capoeira? Taekwondo?”

She rubbed her arm, feeling rather awkward. “Er…am not knowing any martial arts, actually,” she admitted.

Natasha’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Then you must have some sort of dance background, because I’ve seen the way you move while fighting. You’re too fluid.”

“Did ballet for many, many years,” she explained, “and am also knowing belly-dance. Am guessing they are helping with the fights.”

Steve cocked a brow. “Belly-dancing…?” he repeated.

“It’s a style of dance with origins in the Middle East,” Natasha explained. “It involves a lot of hip and chest undulations.”

“Actually, was originated in Egypt,” Lucifina quietly corrected. “Focuses mostly on torso movements, but different countries are having different focuses and costumings.”

“I always thought it was just a style made up by Hollywood, what with how showy it is,” Steve admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s a real style of dance, huh?”

Lucifina nodded. “ _Ja_. Is being really fun style, too. Can dance to almost any type of music if are belly-dancing.” She plucked up one of the cookies, breaking it half before eating it. Truthfully, she didn’t really want to eat the cookies—she was feeling full—but she also didn’t want them to go to waste. ‘And I’m needing the calories,’ she told herself.

“I’ll be sure to keep your dance background in mind while coming up with a training regime for you,” Natasha said. “Though, we need to find you someone who knows how to use medieval weapons, because I don’t know a single S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who can use a sword and shield.”

“I can use a shield,” Steve said. “Not so sure about using a sword, but if you need help learning how to fight, I can teach you a thing or two about how to use a shield offensively and defensively.”

A small smile came to her lips; the thought of being taught how to fight by _Captain America_ was one she never had before. “That is sounding nice,” she said. “Am needing all help can be getting. _Ja_ , have managed this far, but am sure it was all being because of sheer, dumb luck.” She ate the other half of the cookie.

“Maybe when you’re _not_ in the angel form,” said Natasha, “but when you _are_ in it, you seem to have a pretty good basis of how to use that sword—especially since most of your opponents had guns and RPGs. I don’t think they really know what to do when a flaming blue sword comes flying at their heads.”

She shrugged, moving to break the other cookie in half. “ _Ja_ , at least there’s being that,” she agreed. She paused for a moment as she stared at the two cookie halves.

“Full?” Natasha asked, her brow rising.

Lucifina’s cheeks grew a bit warm. “ _Ja_ ,” she murmured. She offered the halves to them, more than a little happy when both Steve and Natasha took the offering.

“Is there a chance we’d get to see your other form before you have to use it in battle?” Steve asked. “I don’t know about Natasha over here, but I’ve never seen an angel in person before.” He took a bite from his cookie.

“Can’t say that I have, either,” Natasha quipped. “Only devils who disguise themselves as angels.”

A small frown came to Lucifina’s face. “Am assuring you that am not being one of those.” She took the final drink of her chocolate milk. “And am not sure if am being allowed to turn into other form while inside ship…Is kind of bigger.”

Steve tilted his head. “Bigger? Because of the wings?”

“Them, too. Other form is also being taller and wider. With wings, would be taking up much room.”

“We can go on the flight deck,” Natasha grinned. “I’m sure Cap and I can find something to hold onto.”

“I’m fine with waiting, to be honest,” Steve told them. “I don’t want some sort of ruckus to be caused just because Luci here changed forms.” He then paused and looked at Lucifina. “…Is it okay if we call you ‘Luci’?” he asked, not wanting her to feel awkward.

She nodded. “ _Ja_ , is being fine. Used to be nickname growing up.” A reassuring smile came to her lips as she looked at them. She tucked her legs against her chest, pulling her hoodie over them before hugging them. “Are going to be one helping train me, then?” she asked Natasha. “Haven’t had chance to be reading file yet. What other kinds of fighting are you knowing?”

Natasha chuckled, though it didn’t seem to have much humor in it. “A lot of different kinds,” she replied. “I’ve been at this kind of thing for a very, very long time.”

Lucifina frowned; Natasha couldn’t have been more than a few years older than her. The way she spoke made it seem as if she had been working for S.H.I.E.L.D. since she was a child…

‘I’ll definitely have to read up on her file later,’ she thought. ‘Because that math doesn’t add up.’

“Your file says that you were in Greece for about a year and a half,” Natasha spoke up. “Everywhere else you went, you only stayed for a few weeks at _most_. And it’s such a small country…what made you decide to stay there for so long?”

She hugged her legs a bit tighter. “Was being dumb,” she explained. “Thought people who were hunting me had finally lost trail, so thought would try getting job and earn bit of money. Also was place spent many summers, since father was growing up in Greece and grandparents lived there until passing.”

“What kind of job did you have?” Steve inquired.

“Flair bartending. Is like bartending, but with dancing and juggling adding into mix.”

“Sounds like a good skill to have. Finding a job like that in New York may be something you’d want to look into—at least, if you don’t find some other job. I’m sure it pays well.”

Steve’s brow rose. “But she’s technically working for S.H.I.E.L.D. now. Wouldn’t get be getting a paycheck from them?”

“I’m not sure. This whole ‘Avengers Initiative’ thing is admittedly a bit beyond my knowledge. I only know that we’re supposed to be a group meant to save the world when militaries can’t. Whether that means we get a monthly paycheck or get paid per assignment, I’m not sure.”

“Can’t they find another position for her within S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

She shrugged. “Maybe. She’s pretty stealthy—they could train her to be part of the stealth ops or how do to do some minor spy work.”

“Stealthy? Really?” Steve blinked, looking at Lucifina.

“Am apparently being _very_ difficult to track down at times,” she said with a small shrug. The conversation had gotten a bit awkward for her; despite being her teammates, she didn’t know these two. Why should they care if she found another job aside from Avenger-ing?

_‘Good teammates don’t care about how long they’ve known one another, child. They care about their teammates and want to help them do well so the entire team can do well.’_

‘It’s still a bit strange, don’t you think?’

_‘Not at all. They may want to help you more so because you do not come from a good place in life. They seem to genuinely want to help you. But I can understand why you don’t trust them yet. After everything you’ve gone through, all this good fortune can seem a bit_ too _good to be true.’_

‘I’m not sure being recruited to save the world counts as _good_ fortune, Seraph. It means the world’s in danger…who knows how many innocent lives could be lost because of this Loki guy? Even if it’s just one life, that’s too many.’

_‘You know as well as I that not everyone can be—’_

“You okay over there, Luci?”

She blinked, looking up with wide eyes only to find Steve and Natasha looking at her with a bit of concern. “Hm?”

“I was asking if you and Steve wanted a tour of the ship,” Natasha told her, a brow raised.

Steve nodded in agreement. “But you just kind of ignored her and were staring at the table without blinking.”

An apologetic smile came to her lips. “Am sorry. Was talking with Seraph is all.”

“…Seraph?” Natasha repeated, her brow slowly rising.

“Her angel,” Steve answered.

Her brows now furrowed. “You can talk with the angel?”

“ _Ja_. She is being separate entity who resides within me.”

A somewhat-impressed look appeared on her face. “And I thought Banner had redefined the term ‘multiple personalities’,” she murmured, standing up. “My offer still stands for the tour, by the way.”

Lucifina shook her head. “No, thanking you. Have been being here since yesterday. Am knowing where important places are.” She then motioned to the tray of food and garbage. “Am needing to be returning this to cafeteria anyway.”

“Then we’ll be seeing you later,” Steve told her, also standing. He gave her a smile before following Natasha out of the room.

Uncurling herself, she grabbed the tray and left the bridge as well. She hoped she was taking a different path than Natasha and Steve; she had enjoyed talking with them, yes, but it was still strange. When she was a bartender, her coworkers were just normal people who enjoyed juggling bottles. Now, however, her teammates were, by all means, superheroes.

‘This whole situation feels like it was pulled straight out of one of dad’s comic books,’ she thought. ‘I just hope this has a happy ending like his comics. Sometimes, the stories don’t have the nicest of endings…’

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all~! If you're enjoying the story, please drop a review or a kudo! I know it's kind of lame for authors to say this kind of stuff, but reviews and kudos help keep us motivated to write~

**_Thursday May 3 rd, 2012. S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. 2 days before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

 

Night on the bridge wasn’t nearly as dark or quiet as one would expect. Though the lights were dimmer, it wasn’t black like the sky outside. Lucifina sat on one of the banisters overlooking the computers below, trying to make sense of all the different kinds of information they were displaying.

Near her on the floor below, Steve was talking with an agent named Coulson, who was apparently Fury’s right-hand man. Fury was at the control station, turning this way and that as he oversaw the ship’s operations. Natasha and Bruce were nowhere to be seen, but she knew that they were both in the lab, trying to work on the science of finding the tesseract.

_‘Are you understanding anything that you’re seeing?’_

‘Some…over there,’ she glanced to her right, ‘are the computers monitoring the various systems needed to run the helicarrier. You know, plumbing, heating, the propellers. That sort of thing. Over there,’ she then glanced to her left, ‘they’re scanning the globe for any signs of Loki.’ Lastly, she looked a few rows directly ahead of her. ‘And there…is a guy playing Galaga.’ 

_‘Galaga?’_

‘A video game.’

_‘Oh. Should you tell Fury of this? He should be working, correct?’_

‘He probably should, but everyone deserves a little break now and then. I’m sure he’ll get back to his job soon enough. He wasn’t monitoring anything too important, anyway. He was going over the ship’s inventory.’ She took a bite of the power bar she had gotten from the cafeteria, her nose scrunching up slightly. ‘This is the most fake-tasting raspberry I’ve ever tasted.’

Out of nowhere, one of the agents spoke up. “We’ve got a hit!” he said, turning his chair around to face Fury. “Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match—seventy-nine percent.”

Coulson hurried over to him, leaning over to get a better look at the screen. “Location?”

“Stuttgart, Germany,” the agent replied. “28, Konigstrasse. He’s…not exactly hiding.”

Fury nodded in understanding. “Captain, Aza—you’re up,” he stated, his brow raised ever so slightly.

Holding the power bar between her teeth, Lucifina slid off the railing and landed on the balls of her feet on the floor below. She followed Steve out of the room and they started heading down the hall. Despite her stomach churning with nerves, she took another bite of the power bar.

“Are you ready for this, Luci?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at her.

“Even if am not, am going to have to being,” she replied. She took the final bite of the power bar before shoving it into the back pocket of her jeans. “Is going to being different than what am used to, that is for sure.”

He chuckled, his brow rising. “Too used to working as a lone wolf?”

“Whenever fought before, never really meant to. Just happened to be at right place, right time.” She shrugged and started to head down a flight of stairs behind him. “No one was being around to give orders.” Rubbing her arm, she looked down at her feet.

He nodded in understanding. “That’s kind of how my first real fight went,” he admitted. “At the time, I was little more than a dancing monkey that the US military was using to get people to buy war bonds. But then, I heard that a bunch of guys, included my best friend, were imprisoned behind enemy lines. The military wasn’t going to risk saving them, so…” He looked over at her and smiled. “I went in without direction. The only thing I knew was that, if there was a chance Bucky was alive…I was going to find him and I was going to bring him home.”

“And did find him—along with other Howling Commandos,” she said, a small, half-smile on her lips. Of course, his first fight had a happy ending—it’s how he really became Captain America, after all.

Her first fight hadn’t been so fortuitous.

“Yeah…After that, though, things got easier. We made plans of attack instead of going in blindly.” His head tilted slightly as Natasha came towards them from one of the side halls. “You’re coming with?” he asked.

“Someone’s got to pilot the quinjet,” she told him, an amused smirk on her lips. “You go get your uniform on, Cap. Luci and I will be waiting in the hanger.”

“See you soon,” he said, hopping over a railing and landing on the catwalk below.

Natasha started to lead Lucifina off again. “You’re nervous, aren’t you?” she asked, not needing to look over her shoulder to see that she was still hugging herself. “It’s fine to be nervous; you’ll basically be going up against a god, after all.”

Her brow rose. “If this is being Loki from mythos, then need to be worrying more about his mischief and deceit than strength.”

“Oh? Can’t say I know too much about Norse mythology. Anything else you know?”

“He was being mother to Odin’s eight-legged horse, Sleipnir.”

That made Natasha stop in her tracks. “…Did you just say he was  _mother_ to an eight-legged horse?”

She nodded. “ _Ja._ Loki is shapeshifter. Would often take female forms, whether was being humanoid or animal.”

“That’s…good to know,” Natasha murmured. “I wonder how much of that is just myth and how much of it is fact, though?”

“Hard to be saying. Until now, was not knowing he was real.” As they stepped into the hanger, she looked around at the different kinds of jets lined up.

Natasha led her over to one, which they started to board. “Will you be turning into your angel form now?” she asked, a curious brow raised.

“Hm.” Standing inside the quinjet, she found the ceiling to be a bit low—there wasn’t even a foot between it and the top of her head. “No. Too short to accommodating other form,” she said. “And would be tight fit with wings.”

“Damn. Was hoping we’d get to see it finally,” she joked. She moved to go sit in one of the pilots’ seats. “Once Steve and Agent Sanders get on here, it shouldn’t take us long to reach Germany. Twenty minutes, tops.”

Her head tilted as she sat down in one of the passenger seats. “How far from Germany are being?”

“Two, three hundred miles. We’re in the middle of the Atlantic right now.”

She nodded in understanding. “Hm. May be able to fly there faster on own,” she murmured. She then shook her head. “ _Nej_ , will not do that…” Grabbing the seat harness, she slid her arms through it before clipping over her chest and adjusting it.

“Talking to Seraph again?” Natasha asked, flipping some switches and pressing some buttons.

“No, just myself.” She looked over at the ramp as Steve and another man—presumably Agent Sanders—came walking up. Her brow rose as she saw Steve’s uniform: It was very similar to the one he had worn in the 1940s, but its colors were more saturated and there weren’t nearly as many utility belts. “That is being blast from past,” she murmured.

_‘That helmet looks ridiculous.’_

‘Yes, it really does…but, it was part of his original uniform, so I can see why they kept it.’ She watched as Sanders went to go sit beside Natasha in the cockpit.

As Steve took a seat beside her, he chuckled, brow raised. “Going to wait until the last minute to be in your angel form?” he jokingly asked. The ramp started to close and he fastened his harness into place.

“Is too big for being in quinjet,” she replied, a small smile on her lips. “Even when sitting, wings would still be making it pain in butt.”

He nodded in understanding, feeling the quinjet starting to move as he adjusted the harness. “So, what’s our plan of attack for when we reach Stuttgart?”

“Hard to say,” Natasha called back to them. “We don’t know what Loki’s up to, but I’m sure he’s not there for date night at the opera.”

“Does quinjet have cloaking?” Lucifina asked.

“Not yet. The technology is too bulky for a quinjet, but it’s being worked on to shrink it down.”

“Then wherever Loki is being, should not be coming in from front. Would be given him too much warning.”

Steve nodded. “I agree. We can’t let him know of our presence until the very last minute. Who knows what kind of damage he could do?”

Natasha looked over her shoulder at them. “You won’t have to worry about that. We may not have cloaking technology on these things yet, but they’re fairly quiet and we can get in to areas normal jets can’t.”

“That’s good. I have a feeling we’ll need to get into tight quarters.”

“Can be getting us in if place is being too tight for quinjet.”

“Good. Looks like for the rest of this, we’ll just be flying by the seat of ours pants,” Steve sighed.

“Is normally what am doing anyway,” Lucifina chuckled. Now that they were safely in the air, she unclipped the harness and brought a leg to her chest. Resting her chin on her knee, she let out a quiet sigh and closed her eyes.

_‘Are you alright, child?’_

‘Yes. Just nervous.’

_‘It’s good to be nervous. It means you won’t be too cocky on the battle field.’_

‘I know…but this will be my first time fighting alongside someone. Someone who’s  _far_ more skilled than me. And we’re going up against a guy who’s basically a god.’

_‘You will make for good support, though. Your healing and your light blasts will surely come in handy.’_

‘I can only hope. The last thing I need is to get killed on my first job assignment.’

_‘Don’t even think such a thing, child.’_ Her tone was far more scolding than usual.  _‘You are a strong, brave warrior. No, you may not have the most experience, but you know when to take caution. I have seen many a warrior fall because they charged heedlessly into battle. But I have also seen many a warrior fall because they hadn’t the confidence needed to go into battle. So, child, have faith in your abilities—just do not be overly confident in them.’_

She quietly chuckled, her brow rising; she didn’t notice that Steve glanced at her strangely. ‘Believe me, I won’t have any trouble  _not_ being overly confident.’

“Talking to Seraph again?”

Opening her eyes, she looked over at Steve, her cheeks turning red. “Ah… _ja_. How could be telling…?”

“Well, you went quiet for a bit there and then you laughed to yourself.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “What’s she like?”

She ran a hand through her hair. “She is being nice and encouraging. She is…sort of being like mother, supposing. Is very good at giving peppy talks and bolsteren confidence.”

He chuckled as she said ‘peppy talks’. “ _Pep_ talks,” he gently corrected. “That’s good to hear, considering the two of you share a…body? Mind? I’m not exactly sure how that works.”

“Mind,” she told him. “Seraph is dead—is being sort of like ghost. But when was chosen to being her avatar, she was being able to transfer powers to me. Is…kind of being complicated to explain. At least in English.” She smiled guiltily, her cheeks growing redder. “As can tell, can understand it, but am not very good at speakening it.”

“I don’t know. I think you’re doing a fine job of it,” Steve told her, an encouraging smile on his lips.

“Not everyone can be perfectly bilingual,” Natasha added in. “On top of that, English is one of the hardest languages to learn. It’s up there with Chinese and Arabic in its difficulty.”

“Oh, am being fluent in Arabic and Greek, too. Believing me, English is being  _far_ harder than both.” She shook her head with a small sigh.

“Arabic, Greek, Swedish—that’s an interesting combination to know,” Steve commented.

Before Lucifina could answer, however, Natasha spoke up. “We’re about three minutes out from our destination,” she told them. “It looks like Loki’s currently inside some sort of art gallery or museum. We can get you in most of the way, but Luci’s going to have ferry you down to the ground, Cap.” As she heard Steve undo his harness, she frowned.

On the monitor, she could see people flooding out of the building and multiple versions of Loki popping up around them.

“Scratch that. Trouble’s happening now. I’m turning the jet around and opening the hatch. Luci, I hope you can fly fast.” She pressed a button and the ramp started to lower.

“Can,  _ja_ ,” she said, feeling her stomach churn. She watched as Steve started to run down the ramp, his shield in hand. Taking a deep breath, she ran after him.

As he started plummeting through the air, Steve narrowed his eyes against the air rushing past his face. He could just barely make out the scene ahead of them: The crowd of people was kneeling—save for one elderly man.

It was then he felt something grab onto the back of his suit. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes widened in shock.

There was Lucifina, faintly glowing and robed in white with copper and bronze armor. Behind her, a large pair of wings that matched the color of her hair flapped once, twice, and then pressed tight against her body.

They were diving three times faster now.

“Get ready,” she told him. “I’m going to drop you right in front of the old man.”

He wasn’t sure how he could hear her; past aerial dives had told him that hearing anything outside of an earpiece was impossible. Regardless, he nodded, signaling that he had understood her order.

Lucifina’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Right as Loki pointed his staff and fired at the old man, she flew by and dropped Steve. He held up his shield in time to deflect a blast of strange, blue energy right back into Loki’s chest, knocking him flat on his face.

Banking, Lucifina brought herself back around, hovering a few yards above and behind Steve. 

“You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing everybody else,” Steve called out, his voice echoing around the area, “we ended up disagreeing.”

Lucifina’s eyes narrowed as she made eye contact with Loki. He smirked, starting to stand up; his eyes were cold and full of amusement.

“The  _savior_. A little girl lost in life,” he chuckled, getting to his feet. “And the  _soldier_. A man out of time.”

“I’m not the one who’s out of time," Steve coolly replied.

Behind Lucifina, the quinjet appeared. She could hear the sounds of the quinjet’s gun being lowered and she smirked slightly.

“Loki,” Natasha’s voice rang out over the PA system, “drop the weapon and  _stand down_.”

Lucifina barely had time to summon her shield as Loki jabbed his scepter in her direction. There was a hollow thud as the blast bounced off the shield and shot towards the quinjet. The pilots maneuvered out of the way just in time to avoid being hit.

“Sorry!” Lucifina called out before looking back at Loki and Steve. As Steve flung his shield at Loki, she started to fly towards the two, seeing that Steve’s punches were barely phasing the Asgardian.

Steve winced as he was thrown back many feet, his suit barely cushioning him against the hard concrete. He rose to his knees, eyes narrowed and ready to throw his shield once more. A bright light suddenly engulfed Loki’s head, blinding him.

He cried out in pain and shock, trying to use his own magic to make the light go away. Though it worked, he hadn’t been fast enough. Lucifina slammed into him with her shield, sending him tumbling across the plaza to land near Steve.

She landed on the other side of Loki, her wings folding behind her and a glowing blue saber appearing in her hand. As the Asgardian stood, she glanced at Steve. He gave her a quick nod to let her know he was unhurt before throwing his shield forward.

Loki all-too easily knocked it aside, but it had been a distraction. Steve ran forward, drawing his fist back to punch Loki, who ducked under the swing. In turn, he swung his scepter, but Steve ducked and tried to punch him in the side; again, the hit barely phased Loki who slammed the scepter into Steve’s back.

He was sent flying across the plaza.

Hearing the rustle of feathers, Loki turned  _just_ in time to use the scepter to block Lucifina’s sword. With a shove, he sent her back a few feet only for her to charge forward again. She slammed her shield into him and swung her sword at him.

He blocked once more before hooking the end of scepter around the edge of her shield. With a sharp tug, he yanked forward right into his bent elbow. There was a sickening crack and intense pain filled her face; she stumbled back and covered her nose with her hand.

Not only could she feel how bent her nose now was, but she could also feel blood coming from it.

“Little girls shouldn’t play with swords,” Loki mocked. His mirth faded as he watched her eyes begin to glow with an ethereal fire.

“Then it’s a good thing I’m not a little girl, now isn’t it?” she growled, lowering her hand. Her nose was no longer crooked nor was it bleeding—it was like it had never broken. The only evidence that it had ever been broken was the blood remaining on her upper lip. Raising her sword, she flung herself at him.

He barely had time to block the fiery onslaught that came rushing at him. Lucifina swung her sword time and time again; sparks were sent flying into the air as her sword hit his staff. With every hit, she stepped closer and closer—forcing him to back up towards a wall.

Her strength took him by surprise: She was at  _least_  as strong as an Asgardian teenager.

From nowhere, his legs were knocked out from beneath him. When he hit the ground, he saw what had done it: Her left wing. With a snarl, he reached out and grabbed it before she could pull it away entirely.

With a quick tug, he slammed her into the wall next to him. The impact of her head with the stone left a nice, spider-webbing crack and a few small chunks of sandstone fell to the ground. Then, standing, he swung her straight into the stone pedestal of a statue.

More force was used with this blow, making chunks of the pedestal break off when Lucifina smashed into it. A groan came from the plinth as the weight of its bronze statue made it begin to lean forward. It crashed over Lucifina’s body, leaving her under a pile of rubble.

Loki smirked and turned around to face Steve. As the shield was thrown at him once more, he easily knocked it aside with the scepter. Steve lunged at him, but he was stopped as Loki slammed the scepter into his gut. He was flung backwards, rolling across the ground.

Lucifina was unearthing herself from the statue’s rubble when the sound of AC/DC started blaring from all nearby speakers. In confusion, she looked up at the sky only to see a speck of light racing towards the area. From the corner of her eye, she could see Loki getting ready to fire the scepter at it.

“Nuh-uh, asshole,” she murmured. Flicking her hand at him as if she were throwing a frisbee, she watched a disc of light fly forward and hit the Asgardian in the face.

Loki growled, trying to use his own magic to get rid of the light once more. But he wasn’t fast enough. The speck of light, which turned out to be a flying suit of armor, shot two powerful beams out of its hands. The shots slammed into Loki’s chest, sending him flying backwards with an audible grunt of pain.

“So that’s Iron Man,” Lucifina murmured to herself.

Standing up from the rubble, she shook her wings off slightly before moving towards Loki, her sword glowing. Steve was approaching from the right, shield in hand and a bit of blood coming from his lip. Tony came from the front, his suit looking more than a little intimidating. 

They had Loki cornered.

“Make your move, reindeer games,” Tony threatened.

Tendrils of light moved along Loki’s body as he slowly raised his hands in defeat. His helmet and regal garb disappeared, leaving him in clothing that still appeared regal, but much more worn and battered.

“Good move.”

Seeing that Loki was no longer a threat, Steve stepped in closer. “Mr. Stark.”

“Captain,” Tony replied. He turned slightly towards Lucifina. “…Christmas ornament.”

Her brow rose. “Never been called that before,” she commented. She looked back towards Loki only to glance past him at a flipped over car. Inside, she could just barely see two figures inside of it—neither were moving. “I’m going to go check for any injured,” she told the two before hurrying towards the car.

Reaching it, she knelt down and peered inside.

_‘Both are alive. One is badly injured. The other is close to fading.’_

‘Got it.’ Moving to the front of the car, she grabbed hold of the front bumper and easily lifted the vehicle from the ground. With the utmost care, she slowly flipped it right-side up; she didn’t want to jostle the injured officers inside, after all. When the car was back on its wheels, she hurried over to the driver’s side and flung open the door.

The driver was unconscious, a large, open crack in his skull and his nose horribly bent. She couldn’t tell what kind of internal damage he had, but knew she had to work fast. Setting both hands on the man, she closed her eyes. A soft, yellow-white light started to flow from her palms. It slowly covered the man’s body until he was fully engulfed.

“Are you here to take us to the afterlife?” the passenger officer groaned. She looked at Lucifina with a mixture of fear and confusion; blood was oozing from her nose and mouth and her eyes were unfocused.

“No,” she replied simply. She kept her eyes shut; she had never healed someone this close to death before and it was taking a great deal of concentration. Her magic flowed through the man’s veins, giving his body the ability to heal itself at a miraculous rate.

When no more of her magic was being accepted, she let go of the man and opened her eyes only to find him staring at her with wide eyes. She gave him a small smile before reaching over and setting her hand on the passenger. Warm light enveloped her, too, but for a much shorter period of time—thirty seconds at the most.

Stepping away from the car, she headed inside the building. Her earpiece gave a warning crackle before she heard Steve’s voice. “Luci, you almost done? We got to get going.”

She paused in her steps, seeing an older man curled up on the ground, clutching his face and howling in agony. Sighing, she raised her hand, pressing on the receiver. “Go ahead without me. I’ll catch up.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I got another injury to tend to. Looks like Loki stabbed him in the eye.” She knelt beside the old man, who recoiled at the sight of her—she couldn’t blame him.

The man stared at her in absolute terror, pressing himself against the strange stone alter behind him.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she gently promised him. “I want to heal you. But in order to do that, I need to touch you.” She held her hand out, but didn’t touch him—she knew he would become even more panicked if she did that.

“Are you really an angel?” the man asked, voice quaking.

She shrugged lightly. “For all intents and purposes, yes.”

“But…I didn’t think God existed. Why would he send me an angel?!”

She tilted her head, an amused smile coming to her lips. “I’m here of my own choosing,” she told him. “Now, why don’t I heal that eye of yours?”

Glancing at her outstretched hand with his good eye, the man hesitantly reached out and took hold of it. Almost immediately, his body was filled with a comforting warmth. His eye, though, felt the warmest, and the excruciating pain that had filled it just mere seconds ago was gone. And within a minute, he was able to see again—quite possibly, even better than before.

“There. All better.” She smiled at him before standing up. “You don’t have to worry, by the way—we got the guy who did this to you in custody.” Turning, she started leave the building.

“Wait—who’s ‘we’?” he called out. But before he got an answer, she was gone.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**_Friday May 4th, 2012. Somewhere over Europe. 1 day before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

****

There was a storm brewing.

Lucifina, while not afraid of storms, wasn’t the biggest fan of flying in them. She had been struck by lightning before and, with how painful it was in her Seraph form, she couldn’t imagine the type of pain it would bring to a normal person. It also didn’t help that this storm didn’t _feel_ right. There was something off about it—but what, she couldn’t tell.

It did bring _one_ good thing, however: Wind. It was blowing to the west, allowing her to travel even faster on its currents. Considering how far behind the quinjet she was, she was thankful for the boost.

What helped even more was that the quinjet seemed to be flying a bit cautiously in this storm. She soon saw it a few hundred yards ahead of her, a dark speck among the flashing clouds. The lightning was growing worse and worse around the quinjet, but it seemed to curve _around_ the jet instead of striking it.

‘Wait,’ she told herself, ‘if they have _Loki_ in the quinjet and this storm isn’t feeling right—’

Her eyes widened as she watched a figure land on top of the quinjet.

“Thor,” she murmured.

Angling her wings, she managed to catch a bit of an updraft. Soaring a good deal higher than the aircraft, she watched as its loading ramp was lowered. She folded her wings close to her body and started to dive.

Her earpiece crackled into life. “Luci, we could really use you about now!” Nat’s voice said. “We’ve got—”

“Another Asgardian. I see him. I’m coming in as I speak.”

When she was just a few dozen yards away, she changed her position so that she was falling feet-first. She spread her wings a bit, slowing her descent before she touched down on the open ramp. Her timing, however, could have been a bit better.

As she landed, Thor, with Loki in hand, was storming his way towards the ramp. She started to spread her wings again, intent on blocking him in, but he swung out his arm, knocking her aside. A curse left her mouth as she fell, hitting the ramp and skidding a few feet towards the edge. Thankfully, she was able to hold on to the textured flooring and pull herself back up and onto her feet.

This time, it was Tony who was coming towards her. He made no effort to shove her away, as he was too distracted by the leaving of Thor and Loki to really notice her.

“Stark, we need a plan of attack!” Steve shouted above the noise.

Tony stopped at the edge of the ramp, turning to look at Steve. “I have a plan. _Attack._ ” He dove off the edge, his propulsion jets kicking in and carrying him off into the night.

“Luci, I need you to take me and follow them,” Steve told her.

“I’d sit this one out if I were you two,” Natasha warned.

“And let Stark take on _two_ Asgardians by himself?” Lucifina frowned. “He’d get squashed!”

“These guys come from legends, Luci—you know that.” She turned in her seat, looking back at the two. “They’re basically _gods_.”

At that, Steve cocked a brow. “There’s only one God, ma’am,” he stated, “and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like _that_.” He looked at Lucifina, who gave an affirmative nod.

Grabbing the back of his suit, she dove off the ramp. She flew in the direction she had seen Tony go—where he was now, however, was a mystery. Squinting, she did her best to peer through the night. They were flying over mountains covered in dense forests. Some of the mountains, she noticed, looked vaguely familiar.

Stopping in mid-flight, she flapped her wings and looked around—both for any sign of Tony and the Asgardians, but also for any other clues as to whether or not she knew the area. There was a strange feeling to this place, that much she knew. Like it had seen a great sadness in its past.

“There!” Steve suddenly called out, pointing to her right. “See the flashing lights? That’s got to be Stark.”

“I’ll take us in low,” she told him, starting to fly.

“As we come in, can you throw some light to startle them?”

Her brow rose as she glanced down at him. “How much light do you want?”

“However much you think it’ll take to stop those two in their tracks.” He watched as a grin came to her lips. In her right hand, what looked like a spear of light began to form—as bright as it was, though, it oddly didn’t seem to have a glow like light should. He wondered if it was some strange effect caused by the light being condensed into such a tight shape.

As they got closer to the fighting duo, Lucifina slowed down, intending to set Steve down on a fallen tree. “Close your eyes.”

Doing as instructed, he clenched his eyes shut.

“That’s enough!” Lucifina called out, chucking the spear forward. Seconds later, the backs of Steve’s eyelids turned bright red as the spear hit the ground.

A second later, he opened his eyes again and walked along the tree, seeing that Tony and Thor were looking up at the two of them. Thor, he saw, was blinking quite a bit while Tony…well, his helmet was shut; the light probably hadn’t affected him as much. He then hopped down, shield at the ready. “Now, I don’t know what you plan on doing here—”

“I’ve come here to put an end to Loki’s schemes!” Thor snapped. He glanced between the angel and the soldier, the former landing on the ground.

“Then prove it,” Steve dared. “Put the hammer down.”

“Uh, yeah, _no_!?” Tony cried. “Bad call! He _loves_ his hammer!” He swore loudly as Thor backhanded him, sending him flying backwards into a tree.

“You want me to put the hammer down!?” Thor snarled. He took a few running steps before leaping into the air.

Eyes widening, Lucifina summoned her own shield and started to race forward to help Steve. But before she could take more than three steps, Thor was coming down with Mjölnir.

The hammer crashed down onto Steve’s shield.

A deafening gong-like sound and a blinding light filled the night. An invisible wall of force slammed into Lucifina, knocking the wind from her lungs and sending her tumbling backwards. She felt wood splinter against her before she came to a halt.

Quietly gasping for breath, she looked up at the sky. It was black and speckled with stars; the storm was gone. Slowly, she managed to get to her feet. Yards away, the three men were already standing. All around them were toppled trees—the shockwave had been strong enough to rip their roots from the ground. Some had even snapped at their bases, leaving behind jagged trunks.

“That’s an efficient way to log,” she mumbled before making her way over to the men. Rubbing her sternum, she continued to take slow, deep breaths.

“You okay, Luci?” Steve asked when she approached.

She nodded. “Fine. Just had the wind knocked from me.” She gave him a reassuring smile, though it was a bit hard to see in the dark. As such, she summoned a disc of light that rose up to bathe the area in its glow.

“Well, that’s handy,” Tony murmured. He then turned to Thor. “You may want to go fetch Loki. Our ride will be here soon.”

“You promise you will not harm him?” Thor questioned, his brow rising.

“So long as he doesn’t give us a reason to,” Steve replied.

Finding this answer satisfactory, Thor took a few steps back before beginning to spin his hammer. He then made to throw it, but instead held on and was lifted off the ground.

Luci looked between Tony and Steve. “Are either of you hurt?” she asked.

The visor on Tony’s helmet rose up, revealing his face. There was a bit of blood on his upper lip, but it was nothing serious. “Just a few lumps and bumps,” he said, looking her up and down. “Huh. So you really _are_ an angel. I thought I had been seeing things back in Germany.”

“I’m just the avatar of one.”

“So you don’t always look like you’re about to announce the second coming of Jesus Christ or declare that Armageddon is upon us?”

“No. And, before you ask, _no_ , I won’t be doing any kind of devout preaching or trying to convert people.” She brushed some hair from her face before starting to look up at the mountains again. She frowned; they were _definitely_ familiar and the strange, sorrowful feeling was stronger now.

She didn’t like it. Not one bit.

Seeing her expression and how she was looking at the surrounding landscape, Steve grew a bit concerned. “Is something wrong, Luci?” he asked. “Do you sense something out there…?”

 “No, no…At least, nothing that’s currently important.” She tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“My sensors aren’t detecting anything within a three-mile radius, either,” Tony said, “save for the ruins of the A.A.O.”

Lucifina felt her stomach drop and she closed her eyes.

Steve’s brow rose. “The A.A.O.?” he repeated.

“The Alpine Astral Observatory,” Lucifina answered with a sigh. “It was an observatory built by both Switzerland and France during the 90’s. It had the latest advancements in technology housed inside of it and had, at the time, the strongest telescope on the planet. In 2003, it was blown up by an unknown terrorist organization.”

_‘Child…’_

‘I’ll be fine, Seraph. I promise.’

Tony’s brow rose as he looked at her. “I never heard _that_ part of the story. Only that the cause of the explosion was undetermined and that it killed thirty people, including the world’s foremost expert in the field of astrophysics.”

“Thirty? Hm. I remember it being twenty-nine.”

“They’re counting Joran-Aza’s daughter among the dead,” he explained. He didn’t see the curious look Steve gave Lucifina. “Since they never found her body and she’s been missing since then.” He looked up at the sky as he saw a dark shape moving towards them. “Ride’s here. Good. I need to recalibrate some of my propulsion units before I do anymore lengthy flying…”

Steve and Lucifina looked up as well; along with the quinjet, they also saw a small, darker object moving towards them. They knew it was Thor returning with Loki. Lucifina’s brows furrowed slightly.

“Why didn’t Loki try to get away?” she murmured.

“You’re confused about that, too?” Steve asked her, his voice quiet. “Something tells me those chains we have him in are little more than decoration on him…”

“Unless they negate his magic, then yes, they’re a bit pointless.” She looked down at Steve. “Not only is he physically strong, but he’s also _magically_ strong.” She watched as both Thor and the quinjet landed some yards away.

“Be on your guard around him,” Steve said. “Nothing about this is really making sense to me.” He started to walk towards the jet, Tony following shortly after him.

Lucifina, too, followed after them. She stayed in her angelic form, making it easier to walk over all the fallen trees. But as she set foot on the ramp, she felt herself grow shorter and lighter as she returned to normal. The others didn’t seem to notice—after all, she had brought up the rear.

As the ramp closed behind her, she watched as Thor pushed Loki down into a seat before he sat beside him. Tony remained standing while Steve sat down and removed his helmet. She, however, sat down beside Steve and across from the Asgardians.

Feeling someone staring at her, she glanced up only to see Tony squinting in her direction. “…Is something being wrong?” she asked him.

“Yeah,” he replied, brow rising. “You fall from grace just now or somethin’? What happened to the whole wings and the heavenly light spiel?”

She frowned slightly, her brows furrowing. “Am being too big to be in quinjet in other form,” she told him.

“Oh, yeah…That’s right, you said something about being an avatar or whatever.” He shrugged, turning to look over Natasha’s shoulder at the various radar and sensor screens. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Am Lucifina Aza, but can be calling me Luci,” she told him. She watched as his eyes widened in a mixture of shock and realization.

He turned back towards her. “…Aza?”

“ _Ja_. As in Doctor Joran-Aza’s daughter.”

Tony stared at her for a moment. “Huh,” he finally said. “So you’ve been alive this whole time? How’d you survive the explosion?”

“…Now is not good being time to talken of such things,” she murmured, looking away from him. “Maybe after whole savening-the-world thing.”

_‘Are you certain you’re alright, child?’_

‘Yes, I’m fine. I just wish I didn’t know where we were.’

 

**_Friday May 4th, 2012. S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. 1 day before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

 

“In case it’s unclear: You try to escape—you so much as _scratch_ that glass…” Fury’s voice could be heard over the intercom on the bridge as he threatened Loki in his holding cell. “Thirty-thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?”

Lucifina glanced over at the screen that was displaying the two males some levels below them. As she watched, she spooned a bit of tomato soup into her mouth; this certainly wasn’t her first choice of dinnertime entertainment, but it was giving her a good idea about what kind of person Fury was.

And what kind of person Loki was.

“Ant,” Fury continued, pointing at Loki. He then pointed at a button on the console beside him. “ _Boot_.”

“It’s an impressive cage,” Loki stated with a soft laugh. “Not built, I think, for me.” As he spoke, he started to pace around the cage.

“It was built for something a _lot_ stronger than you.”

“Oh, I’ve heard.” He looked right into the camera, a smirk on his lips. Lucifina shivered, her nose scrunching up; why was he acting like he had the upper hand? “The mindless beast makes play he’s still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?”

“How desperate am I?” Fury retorted. “ _You_ threaten _my_ world with war. _You_ steal a force you can’t _hope_ to control. _You_ talk about peace and, yet, you kill ‘cause it’s fun.” He was glaring right into the cage at Loki, his eye watching every little movement the Asgardian made. “ _You_ have made me _very_ desperate. And you might not be so glad that you did.”

“Ooh, it _burns_ you to come so close. To have the Tesseract,” Loki taunted, “to have power— _unlimited_ power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is?”

At that, a smirk came to Fury’s lips. “Well, you let me know if ‘Real Power’ wants a magazine or something.”

The monitor went black as Loki looked at the camera again, the smirk still on his lips.

Lucifina shuddered again. Something about this whole situation didn’t sit well with her, but she couldn’t begin to figure out why. With a quiet sigh, she moved to sip her soup directly from the bowl.

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?” Bruce suddenly said, breaking the silence between them.

“Loki’s going to drag this out,” Steve stated. He looked across the table at Thor, who was standing with crossed arms and a distant look on his face. “So, Thor, what’s his play?”

As if coming out of a trance, Thor lifted his head slightly. He turned to look at the group of humans sitting at the table only to let out a quiet sigh. “He has an army called the Chitauri,” he began. “They’re not of Asgard or of any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth—in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”

Steve looked baffled. “An army? From _outer space?_ ” he asked, incredulous.

“Is not surprising…if there is being a real Asgard, are surely being more worlds and creatures out there,” Lucifina said with a small shrug.

Bruce nodded his head in agreement, sighing. “So he’s building another portal. That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for.”

“Selvig?” both Thor and Lucifina repeated, frowning.

“He’s an astrophysicist,” Bruce told them.

“He’s a friend,” Thor stated.

Lucifina rubbed the back of her neck. “He worked with my mother.”

“Loki has him under some kind of spell,” Natasha spoke up, “along with one of ours.”

Steve sat up a bit straighter. “I want to know why Loki let us take him. He’s not leading an army from here.”

“And is being stronger than us,” Lucifina added. “Should not have been able to stoppen him so easily.”

Bruce shook his head, his hands somewhat nervously rubbing together. “I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki,” he told them. “That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats—you could _smell_ the crazy on him.”

Frowning, Thor narrowed his eyes as he looked at Bruce. “Have care how you speak,” he warned. “Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard…and he _is_ my brother.”

Natasha’s brow rose. “He killed eighty people in two days.”

The color drained from Thor’s face and he looked away guiltily. “He’s adopted.”

Lucifina’s brow rose; she didn’t really appreciate that comment, given that her own brother was adopted. But she remained quiet—now was _not_ the time to criticize a literal god.

Shaking his head once more, Bruce brought them back on track. “Iridium,” he said. Lucifina glanced over at him as she took another drink of soup. “What did they need iridium for?”

“It’s a stabilizing agent,” she said. Unfortunately, her voice was overwhelmed by Tony, who had just entered the room with Agent Coulson and given the exact same answer.

Tony murmured something to Coulson, who politely nodded and walked off. He then went over to Thor and playfully smacked his upper arm. “No hard feelings, Point Break. You’ve got a mean swing.” He then started to wander around the upper half of the bridge, inspecting set up Fury had for his command center while also seeing how the lower half of the bridge was laid out.

As he did such, he went back to speaking about the iridium. “Also, it means the portal can open as wide—and stay open as long—as Loki wants.” His brow rose, seeing so many people around. “Uh…raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails,” he jokingly called out. When he saw that no one was appreciating his humor, he pointed at an agent off to his left. “That man is playing GALAGA!” he accused. “Thought we wouldn’t notice. But we did.”

Lucifina’s brow rose as she watched him. ‘I don’t remember him being this strange,’ she thought to herself. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she saw Tony touching various monitors on the command center, as if trying to get access to their secrets. ‘What is he doing…?’

“How does Fury do this?” Tony asked Maria, who had been standing off to the side.

“He turns,” she replied, her voice dry. With Fury elsewhere, it was her job to watch over the bridge—a hard task when Tony was moving all over the command center as if he owned the place.

“Well _that_ sounds exhausting.” He shook his head and returned to the table where the others sat. “The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density—something to kick start the cube.”

_‘Not hard to find a place like that in this world…’_

‘Actually, it is. The power output he’s talking about would be something large enough to power an entire city the size of New York on its _own_. Powerplants and hydroelectric dams aren’t nearly that energy-dense. He’d need something like a nuclear plant.’ Giving her bottle of juice a shake, she opened it up.

 _‘And you say you’re not intelligent enough to return to school…_ ’

‘Shush.’

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Maria asked, crossing her arms over her chest and raising her brow.

“Last night,” Tony replied with a shrug. “The packet, Selvig’s notes, the Extraction Theory papers.” He looked around at the group, frowning. “Am I the only one who did the reading?”

Steve, more than a little unimpressed by Tony’s haughtiness, leaned back in his chair slightly. “Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” he asked.

To his relief, it was Bruce who answered him. “He’s got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty _million_ Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb Barrier.”

“Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect,” added Tony.

“Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet,” Bruce countered.

“ _Finally_ ,” Tony grinned, crossing the room to go stand by Bruce. “Someone who speaks English.”

“Is that what just happened…?” Steve asked as he glanced around. He was glad to see he wasn’t the only one looking a bit confused by the use of such specialized scientific language. Natasha had her brows furrowed in confusion while Thor just looked lost.

“Cube is needing to be heated to nearly…” Lucifina paused for a moment, trying to do the math in her head, “twenty times hotter than sun is being,” she explained. “If he had iridium, needed temperature would be decreased largely, meaning less energy being needed to break Coulomb Barrier.” She unconsciously rubbed her arm and sighed; she could feel a headache coming on. “At least, am thinking that is what they are meaning. Has been long while since I heard science babble.”

Nat smiled at her, a brow rising. “Science babble? I like that.”

“That’s pretty much _exactly_ what we mean,” Bruce told them as he finished shaking Tony’s hand. “Though, I’m a bit confused how you knew that—are you a scientist?”

“No, I—”

“Joran-Aza’s daughter,” Tony interrupted. Either he didn’t see the glare Lucifina threw at him or he chose to ignore it. “You know, the one who went missing in the explosion? Yeah, surprised me, too. After that kind of blast, you’d think she’d turn into some sort of enormous green rage monster like you. Big fan of that, by the way.”

Bruce glanced down, a bit embarrassed by his words. “…Thanks.”

“Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube.” Fury came in, his eye focusing on Tony. “I was hoping you might join him, Stark.”

“Let’s start with that stick of his,” Steve suggested. “It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

“I don’t know about that, but it _is_ powered by the cube,” Fury stated, heading to his command center. “And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

Thor frowned. “Monkeys? I do not understand.”

“I do!” Steve suddenly grinned, his eyes widening in excitement. Seeing that no one else seemed as excited by this, he shrank back ever so slightly. “I understood that reference.”

Rolling his eyes, Tony turned towards Bruce once more. “Shall we play, Doctor?” he asked, motioning towards the hallway.

With a small nod, Bruce started to walk back towards the lab. Tony followed after him, not hearing the sigh of relief that the others let out.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**_Friday May 4th, 2012. S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. 1 day before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

 

Lucifina’s head was beginning to ache pretty bad.

Closing her eyes, she let out a quiet sigh and started to rub the back of her neck. Her muscles felt tight; she wondered if they were the cause of her headache? After all, she had been on edge the last few days. Or, maybe, it was the lack of sleep she had been getting?

Whatever was the cause, she wished it would just go away.

Rising from her bed, she left her cabin to go in search of some painkillers. It seemed walking did little to help ease the pain, as it made her head start throbbing. She was thankful that the LED lights had been dimmed for nighttime; if they had been at their brightest, she was sure the throbbing would have been worse.

As she made her way towards the med bay, she passed by the lab that Tony and Bruce were working in. Part of her wanted to stop and take a peek into it to see how much scientific instruments had been improved over the last decade, but she resisted the urge for now. Lightly shaking her head (and quickly regretting doing that), she continued on.

She wasn’t terribly surprised when she found that Doctor Westbrook wasn’t currently on shift—it was nearly four in the morning, after all.

“Now remember,” the doctor told her as he held out the foil packet containing two Tylenol pills, “you should either take these with a bit of food or with a full glass of water. The acetaminophen in these things can really upset your stomach if they’re the only thing in there.”

“Will get something from cafeteria,” she assured him before tucking the packet into her pocket. She was going to opt for the glass of water—she didn’t want to risk eating anything in case it made her nauseous. As she started to walk back the direction she had come, she rubbed the back of her neck again, hoping it would help _this_ time.

To her luck, it did provide just a touch of relief—enough that she was able to make it down to the cafeteria without her brain throbbing. Being that it was the wee hours of the morning, however, the cafeteria staff wasn’t on duty. There were drink machines available at all hours, however, so she was able to get herself a decent sized cup of coffee.

‘I regret getting this,’ she thought, taking a small sip. ‘It’s so watery…But, what can I expect? It’s neither Greek coffee nor a peanut butter mocha.’ Stopping next to a garbage can, she pulled the packet from her pocket and opened it before popping the pills into her mouth and the foil into the trash. ‘I shouldn’t even be judging it, though. It’s plain and I dislike plain coffee.’

“Didn’t think I’d see you up at this hour.”

She looked up, eyes a bit wide in surprise as she saw Natasha entering the cafeteria. “Had to be gettening medicine for headache,” she replied, a small, pained smile on her lips. “And coffee to be going with meds.”

“I noticed you seemed to be fighting one earlier.” She went over to the coffee machine, beginning to input her drink order. “What’d the doc give you for it?”

“Tylenol.” She took another sip of her coffee, trying not to cringe at its lack of flavor and abundance of bitterness.

“Must’ve been Doc Reynolds on duty then. Doc Westbrook hands out the _useful_ pain medication.” She glanced over at Lucifina. “So…that other form of yours. I can see why you don’t use it inside. What’s that wingspan of yours? Twenty-five feet? Thirty?”

She nodded, still feeling a bit awkward talking about her other form so openly. She was so used to keeping it hidden that it almost felt wrong discussing it. “Is being closer to thirty. Never really measured, though, so could being wrong.”

“Those little light discs—they do any damage or are they just a brightness thing?”

“Just light. Have not learned how to be using light in damaging ways yet.”

“But you’ll be able to in the future?”

She shrugged. “Am thinkening so. Seraph mentioned time or two how she used to be known among her kind for arrows of light.” Taking another drink of her coffee, she thought she felt the headache beginning to ease up. “Still am having much to learn about powers…”

Natasha nodded in understanding. Taking her now-filled cup from the machine, she motioned for Lucifina to walk with her as they left the cafeteria. “Why do you get a sword and shield if she had a bow and arrows?”

“…Thought sword and shield was being cooler than bow and arrows,” she admitted with a small chuckle. “Is being bit easier to use, too. Have tried actual bow when was younger and went hunting with aunt and uncle.” She shook her head. “Was being hard to keep arm steady when aiming.”

“When we get Barton back, don’t let him hear you say that.” There was a small, yet sad, smile on Natasha’s lips. “He’s not codenamed Hawkeye for no reason—the guy’s got deadly accuracy with a bow.” She took a drink of her coffee, her nose scrunching up ever so slightly. “You’d think with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s budget, they’d be able to afford a better coffee machine.”

Lucifina quietly laughed. “Was thinkening nearly same thing, actually.”

“That’s what we get for being European. They make better coffee over there.” She used the two little straws to stir her drink around a bit.

Her brows furrowed. “Are European…?”

She smirked slightly. “I am a spy,” she told her, her accent suddenly being heavily Russian. “It’s my job to not sound like myself.”

Lucifina chuckled. “That is handy skill to be havening. Wish was being able to do that—at most, can give self _slight_ Greek accent. Pakistani accent, though? Ugh, is being less hope for that than is being for me to get American accent.”

“I’m sure with practice, you’ll get the hang of them.” She stirred her coffee before taking another drink of it. A quiet sigh then left her mouth and she looked over at the taller woman. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to answer this just yet—or ever, really—but why did you go on the run after your mom was killed?” She looked over at Lucifina. “Why not just stay back with the rest of your family and fight the bad guys every time they came for you? You’ve the means to.”

She was silent for a moment. Natasha had an oddly comforting aura about her that left Lucifina feeling as if she could trust her—but could she really? Natasha was a spy, after all. It was her job to get people to drop their guards. For all she knew, this was one of those times.

But, whether it was her headache impairing her judgement or wishful thinking, she allowed herself a moment of weakness. “Was being too scared to,” she quietly told the other woman. “Am _still_ too scared. Whoever it was who sended those men after me didn’t know who rest of family was— _just_ mother.”

“Why’s that?”

“Am guessening because only had powers for few weeks at that point. Mother and me were having little holiday together for sixteenth birthday, traveling around Europe. Got powers in Switzerland.” A heavy sigh left her mouth. “The A.A.O. was final stop on holiday so she could be gathering information for some new hypothesis she was havening…so, she was being only family member bad guys would be knowening about. And am wanting it to be staying that way.” She took a drink of her coffee, the taste seemingly more bitter than before. “Don’t want to see the man with metal arm kill father or brother, too.”

Natasha’s eyes widened slightly and she looked at her in shock. “Please tell me that the metal arm didn’t have a red star on it.” When Luci nodded, a bit of horror mingled with the shock on her face. “They sent the Winter Soldier after you?!”

Lucifina’s brows furrowed. “Am not knowing who that—” She abruptly stopped before she could collide with Steve, who had come storming out of the lab.

Steve, however, didn’t seem to even notice the two women. He walked away from them, grumbling to himself. It _almost_ sounded like he was grumbling about arrogance and mistrust.  

Inside the lab, they could hear Tony talking to Bruce. “Can’t believe _that’s_ the guy my dad never shut up about. Almost wondering if they shouldn’t have kept him on ice.”

“The guy’s not wrong about Loki, though,” Bruce said. “He _does_ have the jump on us.”

“What he’s got is an ACME dynamite kit.” There was a pause as Tony shook his head. “It’s going to blow up in his face and I’m going to be there when it does.”

“And I’ll read all about,” Bruce chuckled, but there wasn’t much humor to it.

Lucifina looked over at Natasha only to find that she had disappeared. Shaking her head, she took another drink of her coffee and started to walk by the lab. She only managed to take two steps, however, when Tony called out to her.

“Where do you think you’re going, eavesdropper?” With his hands on the doorframe, he leaned out of the lab in time to see her stop in mid-step. “Get in here. We want to talk to you.”

“We? You’re the one who wants to interrogate her.”

She closed her eyes for a few seconds. ‘Please let this Tylenol finish kicking in soon,’ she thought. Turning around, she moved to follow Tony into the lab. “If are expectening me to know anything about astrophysics, am afraid are being out of luck.” As she entered the brightly lit room, she winced and squinted against the light. Now was one of the times she wished she was stronger with her powers so she could dim the lights without being in angel form.

“This isn’t about astrophysics,” Tony assured her, moving to hop up and sit on a counter. “This is about _you_ and how the hell you’ve managed to avoid detection all these years.”

“To be honest, she hasn’t avoided detection _entirely_ ,” Bruce told him. “She’s been on the news a few times.” He looked over at Lucifina. “That angel form of yours caused quite a stir among the religious communities.”

She frowned, staying near the door. “Am knowing that and am hating that fact. Did best to avoid being caught by cameras,” she murmured. “Wasn’t always being possible, sadly.” She took the final drink of her coffee before tossing the cup into the recycling. “When not in angel form, is being easier to hide in plain sight. Am looking like normal person. But when am in other form, can sometimes get away by refracting light away from self.”

Tony’s brow rose. “I saw the light show earlier, but you’re saying you can do other things with light?”

“Not too well, but _ja_ , am able to control light. Am not being sure to what extent yet—am still learning. But Seraph says with practice, I will eventually be able to use light itself as weapon.” She crossed her arms over her chest, subtly hugging herself again as she leaned back against the wall.

As she brought up Seraph, though, she started to realize that the angel had been rather quiet since their return to the helicarrier. She tried to not think anything of it—Seraph sometimes went quiet in order to let her focus on other things.

Bruce tapped some calculations into one of the dozens of screens around him. “So, you _don’t_ know the full extent of your powers yet?”

“No, am not. Am havening to bond with Seraph—the angel—more in order to get stronger and to be unlockening all my potential powers. Like told Fury, is sort of being like levelling up video game character.”

Tony’s brow rose at her analogy. “So, then, why haven’t you been grinding in order to level up? Frankly, if I had magical powers like yours, I’d be in that other form twenty-four hours a day so I can become the biggest badass around.”

She frowned; the lights were doing nothing to help her headache and neither was Tony’s inquiry. “Was not wanting to be badass. Was wanting to stay hidden from whoever sent killers after me.”

“Then what about _after_ this whole saving-the-world-from-Loki business?” Tony pulled a foil pouch out from a toolbox and opened it. Plucking a few freeze-dried blueberries from it, he looked her in the eye. “You going to start making yourself stronger? Or are you going to keep hiding yourself away?”

Her brows furrowed. “Will be training with S.H.I.E.L.D. after this is all being done,” she replied. “Why are so interested in what I am having planned for future?”

“No reason. I just find it a bit peculiar that a woman who’s supposedly been dead for the last decade suddenly turns up alive and—” He paused, giving her too-thin form a once over, “— _mostly_ well.”

“Was not _sudden_ ,” she sighed. “Look, have apparently being on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar for quite while. Fury found me in Seattle, asked for help. Am tired of constantly havening to scrounge for money for food or clothes. Was given chance to earn money _and_ to being relatively safe from people hunting me. Was not really being offer could be refusing.”

Bruce glanced over at Tony. “She’s got a point,” he told him. “Trust me—I know what it’s like having to hop from place to place in order to stay safe. If S.H.I.E.L.D. had told me they had a way to get rid of the green guy and all I had to do was work for them? I would have jumped at the opportunity.” He looked back at Lucifina. “Though, from what I’m gathering, you’re not going to be getting rid of your other half anytime soon.”

She shook her head. “No.”

“I just want to know how we should trust that you’re really Helga’s kid,” Tony said, still sounding rather skeptical. “That observatory was all but leveled— _no_ one inside survived.” He held the pouch of blueberries out to Bruce, who accepted and took a small handful.

“Wasn’t being inside when it blew up,” she told him. She hugged herself a bit tighter as she let out a quiet sigh of exasperation. “Am her daughter, can be promising you that. Was being eight years old when you visited A.A.O. for first time. Mother was givening you tour when she found me using her electron microscope to be lookening at moss. She threw fit while you laughed ass off.”

Tony’s brows rose. “Huh. I _actually_ remember that,” he admitted. He then narrowed his eyes again, moving closer to her. “But you could have just been one of the lab techs who had overheard everything.” He stopped about three feet from her, looking her over carefully. “You do bear _some_ resemblance to her, though…Alright. Here’s how you can _really_ prove who you are: What is your _father’s_ name?”

“How does that have to do with anything?” Bruce asked, his brow rising skeptically. “I’m sure plenty of people know the name of Doctor Joran-Aza’s husband.”

At that, Tony snorted. “There are hardly any photographs of the guy, let alone any interviews or news articles where his name is mentioned.

“Father is _very_ private person,” Lucifina said with a small nod of agreement. “After Hamahz Oil _knullas upp_ in 1998, father wanted to be distancing self from rest of paternal family.” She rubbed her arm slightly; the ache in her head was _finally_ started to fade away, leaving her feeling a bit lightheaded. “By way, father’s name is being Artaxerxes—he is being second ‘A’ in the ‘Hamahz’ name.”

Looks of confusion came over the faces of the two men. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Tony asked. He suddenly held out the foil pouch of blueberries to her.

She glanced between his face and the blueberries for a moment. Once again she went against her better judgement and reached into the bag, taking a few of the berries. “Hamahz is being…being…eh, is being word created from first letters of names of aunts and uncles,” she said. “Is going in order from eldest to youngest. Husayn, Abdul-Malik, Maana, Artaxerxes, Helena, and Zulaykha.” She popped one of the blueberries into her mouth, crunching down on it.

 “I knew it had to stand for something, but I just didn’t know _what_ ,” Tony said. He returned to his spot across the room. “Didn’t think it was an acronym for anything, though.”

“ _That_ is being word was lookening for. _Acronym_ …” she murmured. She rubbed the back of her neck, mentally repeating the word over and over again in hopes of remembering it. Then, with a sigh, she glanced over at the two men. “Is that being all?”

Tony shrugged, chewing on a blueberry. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, unless you lied about not being good with astrophysics. But even then, we’ve got things under control.”

She shook her head. “Was never being good with astrophysics. Too much math. Was always into natural biology.”

“Kind of figured, given the whole moss thing.” He then paused, his brow rising. “Why moss, though?”

Her head tilted slightly; part of her was confused by his question—why _wouldn’t_ she want to see moss so close up? But she then remembered that Tony was less natural biology-minded and more mechanical engineering-minded. “Moss is being entire micro-ecosystem,” she told him. “All sorts of critters are callening moss their home. Was just wantening to see it all up close.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” he murmured. “Still kind of weird, though, given how young you were.”

She shrugged. “Should have seen what little brother was doing at that age…” She covered her mouth as she yawned; she couldn’t tell if it was her finally-fading headache making her tired or the coffee. Though coffee woke most people up, it had the opposite effect on her.

Bruce looked over at her from his work. “You have a brother? I thought Helga only had one kid?”

She shook her head. “ _Nej_. She is havening two—but brother is adopted.” A small frown then came to her lips, remembering Thor’s earlier words in regards to Loki. “But is _not_ being mass murderer like Loki…” Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as Tony picked up a tablet and looked over whatever was on its screen.

“Almost there,” he told Bruce. “About thirty-three percent left and we’ll have our information.”

“…Are already that close to findening the tesseract?” Lucifina asked.

“Not even close with that,” Bruce answered. “Tony’s been working on something else.”

“…And is something being what upsetted Steve so much?”

Tony snorted and glanced over at her. “You saw his little temper tantrum?”

“Sort of? Nearly ran into him when he left lab. He was not lookening happy.” Looking past the scientists, she could see out into the bridge of the ship. The sky was beginning to grow a bit lighter outside, denoting that the sun would soon be rising. “Am guessening it was having to do with patriotism or something?”

“What gave it away? That star-spangled bodice of his? His old-fashioned mindset? His naivety in regards to people in places of power?” He snickered at his own words.

“ _Nej_. Was grumbling about you under breath.”

The slightest hint of color came to Tony’s cheeks and he pouted somewhat. “Oh. Well then…Turns out he doesn’t like that I’m doing a bit of snooping into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database.”

“A _bit_ of snooping? You’re raiding it and gathering every bit of information you can get your digital hands on,” Bruce said with a raised brow.

Lucifina frowned. “…What? Are knowening how much trouble could be gettening into if Fury found out were doing this?”

Tony shrugged. “And do you know how much trouble _he_ can get into once I find out what kind of dirty laundry he’s got hiding?” He set the table down and crossed his arms over his chest. “Loki said that Fury wants to use the tesseract to make a warm beacon for all of mankind—but world-peace means Fury’s out of a job. I’d just like to know what he _really_ wants the tesseract for. Wouldn’t you?” He glanced over at her. “Unless you’re too naïve to believe he has no ulterior motives.”

Her brow rose. “Is being obvious he has ulterior motives,” she replied, her voice dry. “Anyone with semblance of power is havening ulterior motives—just am not knowening whether they are for good or for bad.” She rubbed her arm slightly. “But right now, am havening no choice but to be trusting him.”

“And why do you say that?”

“Because S.H.I.E.L.D. is probably being only place where can be kept safe from whoever is wanting me.” She shrugged. “Is also only place where can be gettening proper fight training for free.”

He glanced over at her. “Wait, you _don’t_ know how to fight?”

“Not properly.”

“But you use a big glowing sword. _That_ takes some kind of training.”

“Am just kind of swinging it around most of time. Learned _few_ things about hand-to-hand when was workening as bartender in Greece, but not enough—”

“Bartender, you say?”

Bruce shook his head. “You shouldn’t have said that. He loves his alcohol.”

Tony pouted. “ _Please_. I don’t love it nearly as much as I used to. It still beats out protein shakes, though.” He looked back at Lucifina. “To be honest, you don’t really look like the bartending type. Less pompous hipster and more…” He looked her over again, taking in the type of clothes she was wearing. “More model-on-vacation.”

Her brow rose once more. “ _Nej._ May be Swedish, but am not being model.”

“What kind of drinks can you make?”

She shrugged. “Any are wanting and if am not knowening the drink, am knowing how to use Google. And if are wantening flair, can be givening that, too.”

“Flair? What do you mean by that?” His brow rose as he popped a blueberry into his mouth.

“Am meaning flair bartending.” Her head tilted slightly when no look of realization or knowing came to him. “Where bartender dances and—eh, juggles? _Ja_ , juggles—bottles and shakers while makening drinks.” She was surprised Tony didn’t guess that; after all, he used to be quite the party animal—especially last year, when he held an extremely rambunctious party for his birthday. The results of said party had been all over the news channels and tabloids for _weeks_.

“Oh, _that_ kind of bartending.” He snorted, his brow rising. “Alright, then I suppose you look the part a _little_ bit. Still not nearly hipster enough.”

“What is being ‘hipster’?”

“You know: Lots of tattoos, suspenders, fake glasses, stuck-up attitude about food and drinks. You ever been to Seattle?”

“Just came from there.”

“Think Seattleites who hate Starbucks, but love designer cheeses.”

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so very sorry for the delay on this chapter. Lots of things IRL happened over the course of the last few weeks that have made it hard to write. I'm still kind of feeling the effects of said things, but I've managed to get this chapter finished up over the last couple of days.

**_Friday May 4th, 2012. S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. 1 day before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

 

Still in the lab, Lucifina sat off to one side on a stool as Tony and Bruce messed with calculations and went through S.H.I.E.L.D.’s confidential files. All three of them were quiet, though Tony made an occasional sound of interest before poking the screen and marking something for later investigation. She, however, was working on composing a reply email to her brother, having nearly forgotten that he had sent her one—was it really just yesterday? It felt like it had been nearly a week ago…

Fury suddenly entered the lab, drawing her attention away from the phone screen. The director was wearing a frown as he saw the three of them sitting about, seemingly doing nothing in particular. Tony, though, appeared to draw the majority of Fury’s attention.

“What are you doing, Mr. Stark?” he asked.

“Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you,” Tony retorted, his shoulders shrugging slightly.

“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract.”

“We are,” Bruce spoke up. “The model’s locked and we’re sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we’ll have the location within half a mile.” He pointed at a screen behind Fury that showed a model of the earth spinning around and around, smaller windows surrounding it as the computer did calculations.

“And you’ll get your cube back—no muss, no fuss,” Tony added. He then perked as something especially interesting popped up on his screen. From where she sat, Lucifina could see mirrored words spelling out ‘PHASE 2’. “What _is_ PHASE 2?” he asked.

There was a loud thud as Steve suddenly came in, dropping what looked like to be an old grenade launcher, but with a few modern upgrades. “PHASE 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. uses the cube to make weapons,” he said, no small amount of annoyance and distrust in his voice. He then looked at Tony. “Sorry. The computer was moving a little slow.”

Lucifina felt her head beginning to throb again.

A look of mild panic had come to Fury’s face. “Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does _not_ mean that we’re—”

“I’m sorry, Nick,” Tony interrupted. He spun the monitor around, showing a set of digital blueprints for a missile that used Tesseract technology to power it. “What were you lying?”

“I was wrong, Director,” Steve said, his words cold. “The world _hasn’t_ changed a bit.”

Looking past him, Lucifina watched as Thor and Natasha entered the lab. Bruce’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Natasha.

“Did you know about this?” he demanded, pointing at the blueprints.

“You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” Natasha replied, her voice calm. Lucifina thought she could hear a bit of fear in it, though.

“I was in Calcutta,” he snapped. “I was pretty well removed!”

“Loki’s manipulating you,” she told him.

The throbbing quickly morphed into stabbing pain.

“And you’ve been doing _what_ exactly?!”

“You didn’t come here because I bat my _eyelashes_ at you.”

“Yes, and I’m not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy.” He turned to look at Fury. “I’d like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction!”

A quiet groan from Lucifina went unnoticed. Her vision was quickly blurring from the pain in her head.

Fury was silent for a few seconds, his eye wide as he looked at the group of upset Avengers. Then, with a defeated sigh, he pointed at Thor. “Because of _him_.”

Thor’s brow rose. “… _Me_?”

“Last year,” Fury began with a sigh, “earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that level a small town. We learned that, not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly— _hilariously—_ outgunned.”

Dropping her phone, Lucifina gripped her head. ‘What’s going on with me?’ she thought. Her eyes were clenched shut, and yet, it was still too bright for her. Even the simple act of breathing made her head feel as if it were being squeezed by a red-hot vice. ‘Seraph, can’t you do anything!?’

As soon as she thought Seraph’s name, the pain seemed to triple in intensity. The others, too lost in their arguing, ignored her as she fell off the stool. She was curled up in a ball on the floor, tears streaming from her eyes.

Her mind screamed for the angel and the pain continued to grow. It was beginning to radiate down her neck and into her shoulders and lungs. She could feel something rolling down from her nose and along her cheek.

‘Seraph, what’s happening to us?!’ Her shoulders and chest felt as if they were on fire. Breathing was an excruciating chore.

**_‘I told you little girls shouldn’t play with swords. You should have listened.’_ **

She suddenly found herself standing in a pool of water. An illusion of the mind, she told herself, probably cooked up by Loki. On all sides, she was surrounded by white.

But in front of her, there was a large stone and a tree. Bound to the stone by black chains was a woman. Above her, hanging from the tree, was a brilliant green serpent, liquid dripping down from its fangs and onto the woman’s body.

‘Seraph,’ Lucifina whispered, her eyes widening in horror. No longer caring about the pain in her body, she started to run towards the rock. ‘Hold on, Seraph! I’m coming!’

 _‘Ch-child…be…be careful, child…’_ Seraph’s voice sounded weak and it was filled with pain.

‘Let her go!’ Lucifina ordered, her voice echoing around them. The water around her feet felt wrong; it was thick and viscous like honey in winter. It clung to her feet and ankles, trying to hold her back.

**_‘I thought you would appreciate my gift, little girl. With her bound like this, you needn’t worry about those who hunt you any longer.’_ **

Starting to run faster, she watched as a droplet of liquid fell from the serpent’s mouth, splashing down onto Seraph’s body. She writhed in agony and burning pain filled both Lucifina’s mind and body. But anger was quickly displacing that pain.

Part of her started to wonder if this was what Bruce was going through. But she quickly realized that he would be going through the opposite—Loki _wanted_ to bring out the Hulk.

The water clung harder to her feet until it had such a grip that it pulled her down. Throwing her arms out to catch herself, Lucifina watched in disgust as the liquid started to climb its way up her limbs.

**_‘You just don’t know when to give up, do you, little girl?’_ **

‘Let her go!’ she growled out, trying to free herself from the goo. She looked up in time to see more venom drip down onto Seraph; the more she struggled against the goo, the faster the venom spilled and the more Seraph writhed in agony.

**_‘You may as well give up. You’re trapped, she’s trapped—you_ can’t _help her.’_**

‘I _will_ help her!’ she snarled. ‘Seraph, I _will_ get to you and I _will_ free you from—’

**_‘Do you remember what happened the last time you said that?’_ **

The scenery suddenly changed and she was no longer being held by goo, but her body felt heavy like lead. Scattered across a black-tile floor were the bodies of dozens of scientists, their white lab coats stained red with their blood. Across from her was an older woman with fair skin and red-brown hair that was greying at the roots.

Her mother.

Beside her stood a man, the lower half of his face covered by some sort of mask. He kept the barrel of a gun pressed to Helga’s temple as she screamed at Lucifina to run, to get as far away from this place as possible. The hand that held the gun, being made of metal, glinted in the fluorescent lighting.

**_‘Give up and, just this once, you’ll see her live. You won’t have to watch her die for the thousandth time.’_ **

The pain Lucifina’s head faded away, replaced now by a new sensation: Anger. It made her body grow hot and gave her the strength to stand up.

**_‘So what will it be, little girl? Will you give up and spare your mother’s life or will you keep fighting and—’_ **

‘I SAID LET HER GO!’

Lucifina suddenly charged forward, slamming her body into the metal-armed man. Around her, the scenery cracked and started to fall apart like shards of glass. The man grabbed her around the throat with his metal hand—no, it was a serpent’s tail. She gripped at it, able to pull it back just far enough that she could tilt her head and bite down on it. A horrific hiss came from behind the man’s mask and it fell away, showing the serpent’s mouth and fangs as he yanked the tail away from her.

More and more shards of scenery fell away, splashing down into the water below. Loki was shouting at her, but his voice had been rendered little more than a mosquito’s buzzing thanks to what was happening.

The snake-man used his human arm to pull a knife from behind him. Before he could use it, though, Lucifina kicked him in the groin hard enough that it made her leg ache. The knife fell from his grip as he clutched his groin and fell to his knees, hissing in pain once more.

Snatching the knife, Lucifina grabbed the man’s hair and yanked his head back. With his throat exposed, she had had every intention of slicing it open with the knife. It would have been so easy, especially with him being disabled by pain.

But she paused.

By now, the man had returned to a fully-human shape, his mask covering his face once more. His eyes, as blue as ice, were devoid of any emotion except for a sort of confused lostness.

Was this another one of Loki’s tricks, or had the man with the metal arm really looked so lost?

She shook her head. Shoving him away from her, she turned her attention to the chains binding Seraph. Wedging the knife between one of the links, she twisted it as hard as she could. The chain snapped and part of it fell away, the knife unharmed. Tossing the other half of the chain over Seraph, she repeated the action on two different links.

There was suddenly a flash of blinding light; Lucifina swore and clenched her eyes shut against it. Something slammed into her and sent her flying backwards, throwing her into something even harder.

Opening her eyes, she found herself back in the real world. There was a hole in the middle of the laboratory floor and the majority of the Avengers, along with Fury, were pushing themselves up off the floor.

“Put on the suit!” Steve was telling Tony, practically shoving him out the door.

Getting to her feet, Lucifina winced and swore as her head banged into something—the ceiling. She looked down at herself only to find that she was in her angelic form.

‘Glad you’re back.’

_‘I am glad to be back. I am sorry you were forced to go through that. I had a moment of weakness.’_

‘Don’t worry. For now, it looks like we’ve got a fight on our hands.’

She hurried over to Fury, helping him stand up. As she did such, there was a gentle glow from her hand that moved to encircle his body. He suddenly felt warm—as if he had been hugged.

“Hill?!” he grunted into his ear piece.

Lucifina’s earpiece crackled into life. “…Number three engine is down! Can we get a run in? Talk to me!”

A man’s voice could be heard next. “Turbine’s loose. Mostly intact, but it’s impossible to get out there and make repairs while we’re in the air.”

“We lose one more engine, we won’t be,” Maria stated. “Somebody’s got to get inside and patch that engine.”

“Stark! You copy that?” Fury quickly asked.

“I’m on it!” came Tony’s voice.

“Coulson! Initiate official lockdown in the detention section,” Fury ordered, “then get to the armory. Move out!” He then looked over to Lucifina. “That explosion came from near the med bay. Get down there and make sure no one’s hurt—got that? Report to me when you get there.”

She nodded. Letting go of Fury, she hurried out the door, not noticing how the glow remained around him. Changing out of the angelic form, she ran through the narrow hallways and slid down banisters whenever there were stairs. As she got near the med bay, she was forced to cover her nose and mouth with her sweatshirt thanks to the smoke filling the hallway. It was also quite loud thanks to various alarms and buzzers going off.

Through the smoke, she could see that part of the hallway was blocked off by a collapsed ceiling and a walkway that had crashed down from the floor above. As she looked into one of the offices, she found a gaping hole in the floor where the grating had been. There was metal twisting outwards from the explosion sight, and the ceiling had partially caved in. The medical bed had been flipped over and covered by parts of the ceiling.

Seeing a hand sticking out of the rubble, she darted forward. As she did such, she changed back into angelic form so she could move the metal around with ease. Uncovering the bed, she hoisted it up and tossed it aside only to cringe.

It was the doctor who had given her the Tylenol. Though he was covered in blood and his body looked mangled, she could still sense life within him. Kneeling down, she pulled a few shards of metal from his back before rolling him over and removing some from his front. While doing so, her hands glowed and the wounds started to close themselves.

_‘Once you take him somewhere safer, you can leave him be—his wounds will continue healing.’_

‘They will?’ She frowned slightly in confusion; that wasn’t how her healing had worked in the past.

_‘Yes. Let us just say you earned a new achievement.’_

Chuckling, Lucifina scooped the doctor up and carried him closer to the doorway. He groaned as he was set down, but there were no cries of pain. She let go of him and, this time, saw that the glow remained around him. Convinced that Seraph was right, she went back into the hallway and began searching for anyone else.

“There’s extensive damage down here, sir,” she said, touching her ear piece while her other hand shoved some cupboards to the side. “I found Doctor Reynolds trapped under debris, but he’s healing up now. Still searching for others.” Finding no one in this room, she hurried to the next.

“Dammit! All of our medical supplies are—” His end suddenly went quiet and she could only imagine it was because more trouble had arisen.

Shaking her head, she went out into the hallway and started looking for more people. In the room across the hall, she found a nurse who was unhurt, but thoroughly shaken.

“There are others,” he told her, running his hands through his hair as he paced in front of her. “On the other side of that pile. I don’t know if they’re alive, though—it’s a dead end and with all that smoke coming from over there…” He then looked up at her with wide eyes. “Holy shit, you’re a fucking _angel_!”

Her brow rose and a bit of a smile came to her lips. “Doctor Reynolds is in that room,” she told him, pointing across the hall. “He’s healing up from some serious injuries and may still need help. I want you to watch over him while I work on getting the others out, okay?”

The nurse nodded, still staring up at her in awe.

“How many others were there? Do you know?”

“U-Uh, three,” he said. “Doc Westbrook and two nurses.”

She nodded in understanding. “Alright. Go help Reynolds now so I can get started clearing this pile.” As the nurse darted into the other room, she let out a quiet sigh and approached the pile of debris.

Lucifina started to move the bit of fallen grating, but there was a groan of metal. Looking up, she found that it was still partly attached to the walkway above and was keeping it from falling. With as much care as she could muster in her limited amount of time, she managed to wriggle the grating around in such a way that it was both out of the way and keeping the walkway from caving in.

From there, she was able to quickly push bits of ceiling debris and twisted metal off to the side, clearing a path way to the end of the hallway. But the more she moved stuff, the more smoke startled to fill the hallway and the thicker it got. By the time she had finished moving everything, she could hardly see a thing.

Knowing her light wouldn’t be able to penetrate the smoke, she opened her wings slightly and flapped them a few times. The smoke was beaten back for a brief few seconds, allowing her to see two of the three people the nurse had told her about. She hurried forward, kneeling beside them.

_‘Both are alive, but barely. They have no injuries, though, so you are not the one who can heal them.’_

‘Smoke inhalation,’ she thought, easily lifting the two. She darted back down the hall, setting them down in the room with the nurse and Doctor Reynolds. “No injuries, but they’ll need oxygen,” she told the two before rushing back into the hallway.

From somewhere in the helicarrier, she heard what sounded like an _extremely_ ticked off animal roar.

‘Sounds like Banner lost his cool,’ she thought, using her wings to beat back the smoke again. She looked around for Evelyn, but was unable to find her.

But she could hear screaming.

Racing towards the closed door, she tried to open it, but it was stuck.

“Evelyn? What’s going on in there?” she shouted through the metal door. She thought she could hear the sound of either rushing air or a giant fan.

“I can’t hold on much longer!” came the desperate reply. Her voice sounded further away than what should have been possible with the size of the room.

Summoning her sword, she stabbed it through the door as if it were aluminum foil. Wedging her fingers in the gap left by her sword, she yanked back, the door easily coming free of its sliding tracks. Lucifina gasped as she was suddenly pulled forward by a vacuum, but a pile of shattered cabinets and an examination bed kept her from falling forward.

Across the room, the wall had been blown out by the explosion. Hanging onto an exposed pipe for dear life was Evelyn. There was blood covering half her face and rolling down her neck. Her skin was pale, whether from fear or blood loss, Lucifina couldn’t tell.

Lucifina shoved aside the exam table, not caring that a bunch of cabinets got smashed in the process. But as she rushed forward to grab the woman, the ship gave a great shudder and the pipe Evelyn had been clinging onto fell loose and she screamed in terror. The combination of the ship’s speed and the outside wind carried her a hundred yards away in just a few seconds.

Launching herself out of the hole, Lucifina kept her wings tight against her body. Far in front of her, Evelyn was flailing in the wind, trying in vain to slow her descent. It would make grabbing hold of her harder, that was for sure—especially since her hair was whipping around her face, blocking her vision.

“Go prone!” Lucifina called out. Somehow, her voice was loud and clear. “I can’t grab you if you’re flailing like that!” She watched as Evelyn did as instructed…only to start flailing again.

But why did it look like she was gesturing behind her…?

Lucifina turned over in time to see a large piece of metal falling towards her. Too late to change her course, she swore and threw her hands and wings over her head just in time for the metal to slam into her. She could feel sharp bits of metal stabbing into her torso and her legs as the metal pushed down on her.

She felt something stab into her stomach.

_‘Child!’_

“I’m fine,” she gasped aloud. She tried to unfurl her wings, but one of them was pinned against her, metal stabbing into it, too. “Just need to—get my wing—free—” After some extremely painful wriggling, she was finally able to push back against the scrap and free her trapped wing.

She suddenly unfurled her wings and jolted to what felt like a stop. The metal was pressed further into her body and she could feel her clothes growing wet with her own blood. Though gravity still worked against her, she heaved up on the metal. Thanks to the decrease in velocity, the task of rolling over and letting go of the scrap was made much easier.

Looking down at her stomach, Lucifina instantly wished she hadn’t. Blood gushed from a gaping hole in her torso and she could still see slivers of metal glinting in the early morning sunlight. She quickly picked them out before looking around for Evelyn.

The doctor was far below her, just a tiny speck plummeting towards the ocean.

‘I’ll be fine,’ she assured Seraph before the spirit could speak. ‘I’m healing as I think.’

She knew simply diving towards Evelyn wouldn’t be fast enough. As such, she started to use her wings. With each beat, she felt herself move faster and faster and faster until everything around her was a nothing but a blur.

 _‘Remember, come at her from the side,”_ Seraph instructed. ‘ _She’s falling at her fastest—catching her or grabbing her dead on at that speed could kill her.’_

‘Got it.’ Shifting her angle ever so slightly, she watched as Evelyn went from being directly in front of her to being off to her left. Evelyn was getting closer and closer, but so was the surface of the ocean.

It had been close. Evelyn was only a couple dozen yards above the ocean when Lucifina swept in from the side. Though she was careful, it still felt as if the angel had rammed into the doctor. A glow surrounded Evelyn and she was filled with a hug-like warmth as Lucifina’s healing magic surrounded her.

“What happened!? Why was there an explosion!?” she cried, looking at the angel in shock. Her skin had gotten even paler—this time, however, she knew it was because of fear.

“I’m not sure,” Lucifina told her, starting to fly back up towards the helicarrier, “but I’m fairly certain some of Loki’s minions did it.”

She nodded shakily before looking down and seeing the blood-stained fabric of Lucifina’s clothing. Her eyes widened and she shifted around _just_ enough to look at the damage, unknowingly making the angel cringe in a great deal of pain. “Your stomach looks like someone took a chainsaw to it!”

“Not a chainsaw—just scrap metal. It’s healing, I promise. Just—just _please_ stop squirming so much.”

Realizing the pain she was causing, Evelyn frowned and ceased her attempts to better inspect the wound. “S-sorry. I guess I’m just surprised you’re able to even _move_ with that kind of wound.”

“This is _nothing_ compared to some other wounds I’ve received over the years.”  

Her head suddenly tilted slightly as her earpiece came to life. “Aza, report,” came Fury’s voice.

“Med bay is a disaster,” she replied. “There was smoke everywhere and caved in ceilings. One of the rooms has a wall blown out. Doctor Westbrook was in that one and ended up going overboard—I flew after her and caught her, though. I’m flying back up now.”

“Good. Anyone else down there?”

“Three nurses and Doctor Reynolds. I did a patch job on Reynolds, but two of the nurses had severe smoke inhalation. Last I knew, they were alive, but that may have changed.” She watched as a large object suddenly dropped out from the bottom of the helicarrier.

It was Loki’s cell.

Narrowing her eyes, Lucifina sped up. At that speed, Evelyn knew that it would have been nearly impossible for a human to breathe thanks to the wind in their faces. Somehow, though, she was breathing quite normally—actually, she was breathing better now than she had been when Lucifina caught her.

As if reading her mind, Lucifina glanced down at her and saw the confusion on her face. “Magic,” she told her. “I have some sort of aura that makes it easier for me to survive in inhospitable conditions. If I’m touching someone, it affects them, too.”

Barely two minutes passed when Lucifina landed on the deck of the helicarrier. The two women were racing back inside when both their earpieces came to life.

“Aza! Get down to detention _now_!” Fury’s order sounded desperate.

“On my way, sir,” she said, turning left as Evelyn turned right. As she ran, she kept a hand pressed over her stomach; having concentrated on healing Evelyn, she had only partially healed herself.

As she reached the detention section, she found a gruesome sight. Fury was kneeling beside an agent on the ground—Coulson. His shirt was stained with blood and there was a hole in his chest. Next to him was some sort of Phase 2 weapon.

Her eyes wide, she rushed over to the two. She could sense just the tiniest bit of life left in the man—that was all she needed. She had healed people on the brink of death before. She just needed that tiny thread to help them hang on to.

Behind her, she could hear voices, but she ignored them. Kneeling beside Coulson, she set her hand on his shoulder and started to channel her magic into him.

But no glow surrounded him.

The thread of life had snapped and she heard Seraph confirming the worst.

_‘He’s gone, child.’_


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the still-erratic posting schedule. I haven't been feeling too great mentally and I haven't had any real motivation to keep writing. So...maybe if you guys are enjoying the story so far, could you leave a review? It doesn't have to be an actual review--it could be an emoji or just a word. Just something so I know that people are reading this.

**_Saturday May 5th, 2012. S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. 6 hours before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

 

Everything was quiet again.

Steve and Lucifina sat around the conference table, both of them suffering from varying degrees of shock. Dried blood stuck to parts of Steve’s face, but there were no longer any wounds to be found thanks to Lucifina. Her face was fairly hidden, being that her hood was up and her face buried in her arms.

The two, along with Tony, had spent the rest of the day doing their best to help clean up the mess caused by Loki’s minions. Steve had helped with physical clean up as well as putting out any fires that still remained burning while Lucifina tended to the injured agents. Tony had tried to help with the ship’s computers, but after having hacked them the previous night, Fury didn’t entirely trust him with such a task and instead had him work on the engines. He was probably still working on the engines, Lucifina figured.

In total, ten agents had been lost in the attack, with two of that number being the nurses who had suffered from smoke inhalation. Compared to the total number of agents on the ship, however, it was only a small fraction of lives that could have been lost.

‘It’s still too many.’

_‘You did what you could, child. Not everyone can be saved. We’ve discussed this before.’_

‘I know. But Agent Coulson’s death seems to have affected _everyone_. If I had just been a bit faster…’

_‘Don’t do this to yourself, child. Don’t dwell on the ‘what-ifs’ and the ‘if-I-hads’. You know better. You know what it can do to you.’_

She let out the quietest of sighs. ‘I know. I’m trying to not think about them, but…it’s hard. Everyone’s so quiet. Even Tony was affected by Coulson’s death.’

_‘As true as that is, you mustn’t let it eat away at you—especially if you are to start doing this sort of thing more regularly. You must remember that their deaths are_ not _your fault. Loki is the one who is the one to blame for their deaths.’_

‘Which makes me want to get him into an Asgardian jail even more.’

_‘Oh? Why not a Midgardian jail? Surely one of those would be good enough for him.’_

Lucifina’s brow rose slightly. ‘Because we don’t have the kind of prison that could properly contain him. We may be able to physically keep him contained, but it’s obvious his magic was able to get through all that glass and steel. Not to mention, he’s done his fair share of crimes on As—’ She paused in mid-thought as she realized something. ‘Oh. You were joking.’

A gentle laugh echoed through her mind. _‘I got you to think of something else for a short moment, did I not? And that is what you need to continue doing, child.’_

‘I’ll try. It’s…hard when everyone around me is so depressed.’

_‘That is one of the many side effects of battle, I’m afraid.’_

Lucifina’s phone suddenly buzzed in her pocket, jolting her from her mental conversation. Sitting upright, she reached for her phone with one hand while the other moved to push some stray hair from her face. She frowned when her fingers brushed against her cheeks and found them damp with tears; she hadn’t even realized she had been crying.

With a sigh, she pulled out her phone and looked at it. It was from an unknown number, but the message alone told her who it was.

 

_Aza, I know you probably don’t feel like eating right now, but at least have a nutrition shake or two before you and the others go off to kick Loki’s ass, okay?_

After reading the text, she sent a quick reply and got up from her seat, leaving the room. She passed by Fury in the hallway; he merely gave her a small nod of acknowledgement, though he didn’t look at her. A pang of guilt came to her stomach, but she did her best to ignore it.

“ _Jag gjorde vad jag kunde,”_ she whispered to herself, repeating Seraph’s earlier words. Pushing her hood off her head, she ran a hand along one of her braided pigtails. As she walked towards the cafeteria, she unconsciously wrapped her arms around herself.

Members of the crew were still running around, trying to clean up the ship and make as good of repairs as they could. She did her best to stay out of their way, not wanting to be a nuisance. Some, though, she recognized as crewmen and crewwomen she had healed that morning. As they rushed past her, they gave her thankful smiles and some even patted her on the shoulder and gave her their thanks.

‘I _did_ do some good,’ she thought, a small smile coming to her lips.

_‘Just as I said.’_

‘Yeah, just as you said…I’m sorry I doubted you.’

_‘There is no need to be sorry. This is the first time you’ve really gotten to see effects of your aid. In the past, you always had to flee before you had the chance. Now, I suggest doing as the doctor instructed and get yourself some food. You used a lot of energy today.’_

‘I know. I’m thinking about getting three of those nutrition shakes, since I haven’t eaten since yesterday. Even then, I couldn’t really keep anything solid down thanks to that headache.’

_‘What_ are _nutrition shakes? How much sustenance do they provide a person?’_

‘They’re also called meal replacement drinks,’ she explained as she reached the cafeteria. It was practically empty and understandably so. ‘They’re packed full of the vitamins, minerals, and calories a person would usually ingest by eating a regular meal. Except, since they’re pre-measured and are made for health benefits, they’re…well, usually, they’re healthier for a person.’ Going over to the vending machine, she looked at the selection in an attempt to find the chocolate one.

_‘Oh. In my homeland, we had something similar to that, but it was a type of beer. Very weak in its alcohol content, but a person could have a single tankard at breakfast and they wouldn’t be hungry again until supper.’_

‘I believe a few of our cultures have something similar to that as well.’ She chuckled quietly as she pressed her thumb against a reader on the vending machine. She had come to learn that with these machines, if you were part of S.H.I.E.L.D., you didn’t have to pay for your snack or drink. As such, she had bought herself three of the nutrition shakes, but only two of them were chocolate; the last one, sadly, had to be vanilla.

She was heading towards her cabin and was in the middle of her second shake when she saw Steve heading towards her. There was a serious look on his face, with his brows furrowed and determination in his eyes.

“Follow me,” he ordered, walking past her.

Blinking, she did as she was told. “…Where are going?”

“We’re going to get Natasha and then we’re going after Loki.”

“Ah.” She rubbed her arm; this was happening a lot sooner than she expected. “Was not thinkening would be leaving so soon.” She hoped that the shakes would replenish some of the energy she had used that morning; something told her she was going to need every last bit she could get.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Fury doesn’t know. At least, he doesn’t seem to know—he may suspect it, though.”

“What about Tony’s suit? When saw it, was being very—eh, how say? Garbaged? Trashed? _Ja_ , was being very trashed.”

Steve couldn’t stop himself from smiling slightly at the way she spoke. “He’s making a few small repairs, but it can still fly. He says once he reaches Stark Tower, he’ll have a different suit at the ready.”

“Stark Tower?”

He nodded. “That’s the most logical spot for Loki to set up. Not only is it somewhere that can be seen by millions of people, but it’s also in the right spot, energy-wise.”

“Ah, _ja_ , is being understandable place then.” As she continued to follow Steve, she pulled out the third and final of her shakes—the vanilla one. She started to shake it, drawing Steve’s attention.

“What is that?”

“Nutrition shake.”

“Didn’t you just drink one of those, though? Aren’t you only supposed to have one at a time?” He frowned, concerned that she was going to overdose on something.

“ _Ja,_ just had _two_ others already. But, being underweight, am needening to be drinking more than one at time. And was being Doctor Westbrook’s orders to eat something before am going off to kicken Loki’s ass.” She smiled sheepishly, twisting the cap open. “Being her words, not mine.”

He nodded slowly. “She’s the one who called me a fossil earlier, right? And the one who went overboard?”

“ _Ja_.” She took a drink from the shake only to scrunch up her nose and stick her tongue out in disgust. “Ugh, is tastening like chalk…” Plugging her nose, she tipped her head back and downed the rest of the vanilla shake like a frat boy shotgunning a Budweiser. With the horrid, chalky taste coating her mouth, she swore under her breath and tossed the bottle—along with the other two shake bottles—into the first trashcan they passed.

Steve shook his head, chuckling slightly. “Not a fan of vanilla, I take it?”

“Not really. At least, not when is being flavor of nutrition shake.” Keeping her mouth closed, she tried to scrape the flavor off her tongue with her teeth, but it was to little avail—if anything, it made the flavor sink in more.

The two of them went down a hallway filled with what looked like ordinary cabins. Above each door, however, there was a light. Only one was lit, shining bright red against the cold metal of the wall. Steve headed straight for this door before pressing some numbers into the keypad. The door slid open, revealing the rooms occupant: Natasha.

“Time to go,” Steve told her, the words making her frown.

“Go where?” she asked in return.

“I’ll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?”

A door inside the room suddenly slid open and a man stepped out, drying his hands with some paper towels. With his dirty-blonde hair and his distinctive sleeveless shirt, Lucifina recognized him to be Clint Barton.

“I can,” he said, tossing the paper towel into the trash.

Glancing at Natasha, Steve watched as she nodded, confirming that he was on their side. He looked back at Clint, the slightest hint of a smile on his lips. “Then suit up.” He stepped away from the door and started to walk off.

Lucifina continued to follow after him. “Would liken me to go wait in hanger?” she asked him, feeling a bit awkward when she recognized that he was now heading to the weapons locker. “Since am havening no suit or weapons…”

“Actually, I’d like to talk to you for a moment about your shield use.”

She blinked, taken aback by his words—which, in hindsight, she really shouldn’t have been. Steve did use a _shield_ as his primary attack _and_ defensive weapon. “O-Okay?”

“When we fought Loki together in Germany, I saw you using your shield mostly to deflect blows. But you can do more than that.” As they entered the weapons locker, he headed right for the display holding his shield. “It’s not just defensive, after all. You can throw people off balance by slamming it into them or by hooking one of their limbs with it. Your shield, I noticed, also has lots of pointed parts, which you can use to stab people with. Contrary to popular belief, the strongest part of the shield is its edge, so using that to hit people is always good.”

She nodded in understanding. “Will be doing best to remember,” she told him. “In past, have tried to watch Youtubes of renaissance—ah—renaissance…” Unable to think of the right word, she went with the next best thing, “dresser uppers to try to get idea of how to be usening sword and shield. Is kind of hard to be learning, though. Dresser uppers are fightening against swords, axes, maces…am fightening against guns.”

As he pulled his shield from the display, Steve turned around and gave her a reassuring smile. “When this is all done and said, I’ll teach you a few things, okay?” He reached back and grabbed his cowl, pulling it over his head. “Let’s get going.” As he walked past her, he lightly patted her shoulder.

 

Soon enough, Lucifina and Steve were walking into the hanger. Natasha and Clint were there already, both now equipped with their weapons of choice. Clint looked a little confused when he saw Lucifina—understandable, given that he had yet to meet her. Her lack of weapons and a fancy suit, too, added to his confusion.

“Luci, I want you on the outside with Tony,” Steve said. “You’re better out of the jet than in.”

She nodded. “Got it. Meet you in sky then.” Walking away from the group, she picked up the pace a bit. Inside the hanger, the jets and quinjets were parked too close to one another to allow her to stretch her wings. She would have to get out in the open before she could take off.

“H-hey, you’re not authorized to be out here!” someone called over to her.

Ignoring them, she started to walk faster. Inside her chest, her heart was pounding; she was nervous and excited. This was different than going to Germany and fighting Loki—things had been dangerous then, but there had been far fewer lives at stake.

But now? With how densely populated New York was, she knew that thousands upon thousands of lives were at stake. Depending on whatever trouble Loki was using the tesseract to summon, the whole _city_ could be at risk for destruction.

_Remember: Focus on the task at hand. Thinking of too many things at once will overwhelm you._

‘I’m afraid I feel a bit overwhelmed regardless.’ She forced herself to continue ignoring the mechanics yelling at her for not being authorized to be on that part of the ship.

_The battles you fought in the past were ones where you fought alone. But now you have others to help you. Others to guide you. Steve, especially, seems like a fit leader. He reminds me a great deal of my late brother, who was one of my people’s greatest military commanders._

‘Well, it’s good to know you approve of him at least.’ Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that about five mechanics were starting to run after her, reaching for weapons at their waists. ‘Either they don’t know who I am or I really don’t have clearance to be up here…’ She chuckled and, approaching the exit of the hanger, she started to run towards the edge of the ship.

As she ran, she felt herself growing taller. A familiar weight grew heavier and heavier on her back. Then, jumping over the edge of the ship, her wings unfurled and she soared into the sky.

Less than a minute later, a mass of black appeared in the corner of her vision. Looking to her right, she saw the quinjet; Clint was in the pilot’s seat and Natasha in the co-pilot’s spot. Steve was behind them, his shield on his back as he rested a hand on Clint’s seat.

Then, out of seemingly nowhere, Tony appeared on the other side of the quinjet. “What’s the plan, Cap?” he asked, keeping pace with them.

“You and Luci fly ahead,” Steve replied. Lucifina found it a bit amusing that she could see his mouth moving from where she was, but the words weren’t matching up in time over the ear piece. “Luci will scout out the situation while you get a new suit. If there’s time, I need the two of you to start forming a perimeter around the area and evacuating people.”

“Rogers that,” Tony said, a hint of amusement in his voice. He looked over at Luci. “Let’s go.” Thrusters kicking in, he suddenly shot ahead in the sky and quickly disappeared.

“Right behind you,” she said. Though it didn’t feel like she was flapping her wings any faster, she quickly lost sight of the quinjet and the clouds around her turned into blurs.

“You ever been to New York, Aza?” Tony asked as she caught up to him.

“Not properly. I passed through it a few times, but never stayed longer than a few hours.”

“Really? Shame. There’s some great food places there. I’ve heard there’s a really good shawarma place a few blocks from Stark Tower.”

Her brow rose as she glanced over at him. “Maybe I’ll check them out after I get a paycheck. Been awhile since I’ve had good Middle Eastern food.”

“Probably been a while since you’ve had good food in general.”

“Not necessarily. Had a pretty good burrito a few days ago when I was in Seattle. And a fairly decent hotdog…at least, it was decent until Fury showed up.”

Tony snorted. “Yeah, he has a way of making good things taste bad just by existing near you. He and Agent Romanov technically recruited me while I was binging on top of a donut shop. Haven’t been able to eat a donut since.”

He then shook his head. “Anyway. New York’s pretty densely populated. We’re going to have thousands of people in a one-block radius alone and if we give them any sign of trouble, they’re going to panic and they’re going to hurt themselves in that panic.”

“Why don’t you hack the PA systems like you did back in Germany and tell everyone there’s a gas leak somewhere? That shouldn’t induce _too_ much panic.”

There was a momentary silence from Tony. “…You know, I hadn’t thought about that. Don’t think Rogers did, either.” He then chuckled and shook his head again. “Jarvis, do as the holy messenger says and get to work putting out the notice.”

She rolled her eyes, letting out a heavy sigh. “How long are you going to keep up the biblical puns?”

“Oh, maybe until the Day of Reckoning.”

Groaning, Lucifina smacked her forehead.


	9. 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so, so very sorry this took so long to get out. Fight scenes are one of the most difficult things for me to write, especially when I'm having to incorporate my oc into canon fight scenes. However, your wait was hopefully worth it, because this chapter is a whopping 12 pages long! 
> 
> After this is where I'll begin to diverge from MCU canon. So expect the Avengers becoming more like friends like they're supposed to be. 
> 
> Also, i want to give a thank you to those of you who left such lovely comments on the last chapter! They really helped to pick up my motivation again :)

**_Saturday May 5th, 2012. New York City. 20 minutes before the Attack on Manhattan_ **

 

New York was _huge._

The last time she had been in New York, Lucifina had only gotten to see a train station and the block it was on—not nearly enough to get a sense of just how large the city was. But now, flying above New York and seeing just how much land it actually covered? It was probably the largest city she had ever seen.

And she had been to _many_ cities since going on the run.

There, in the middle of it, was a skyscraper bearing the word ‘Stark’ across it. Though it was very clearly modern in design, there was a sort of elegance to it that made Lucifina think of the art deco prints her father had hanging from the walls in his studio. Maybe it was the way the sections of tinted windows gradually curved inwards, giving the illusion the building was twisting?

‘It’s not as ugly as Steve implied it was,’ she thought.

_‘It somewhat resembles the neck and head of a chicken.’_

Lucifina blinked, her brow rising. Towards the top of the building, there was a large landing pad for helicopters and the way it jutted out did, somewhat, resemble the silhouette of a chicken’s head. It was a more cartoonish silhouette, but one of a chicken nonetheless.

‘I hate to admit it, but…you’re really not wrong.’ She quietly chuckled to herself.

“Looks like that gas leak ploy worked,” Tony suddenly said.

Looking down at the ground, she saw people filing out of buildings as they made their way towards a barricade being set up by the police. Of course, the flood of people wasn’t moving as smoothly as she had hoped it would—there were a _lot_ of people to evacuate, after all—but at least the majority seemed to be making their way out of the immediate area. “I didn’t know police got involved with gas leak calls.”

“They do if it’s Stark Tower,” he chuckled, “because who knows _what_ kind of gas is being put off by my scientists? And look at all the people down there: There need to be cops to give them _some_ sort of reassurance that things are going to be okay. That, and a lot of them are probably panicking and freaking other people out.”

“Ahh, yes, that makes a bit more sense. Herd mentality; one person starts to panic so others follow suit.” She looked towards Stark Tower once more. “With everyone evacuating already, what should I do?”

“First, let’s just try and talk some sense into Selvig.” He changed his flight path towards the very top of the tower, where a strange machine had been set up.

As they flew closer, Lucifina could see a middle-aged man who looked like he hadn’t slept in days working furiously on the machine. It had started to spin, bringing a smile to his lips. He was barely recognizable to her—but then again, it had been nearly two decades since she had last seen the man.

“Shut it down, Doctor Selvig,” Tony ordered, hovering a few yards away from the building. Lucifina remained a few yards behind him, bobbing up and down as she flew in place.

“It’s too late!” Selvig called out, his grin widening as he turned to face the two. “It can’t be stopped now.” Turning back towards machine, he stepped closer to it. “It wants to show us something: A new universe!”

“Okay,” Tony said, his tone exasperated. He held his hands out, the high-pitched whine of his repulsors charging up filling the air. They shot out of his palms and at the machine, but an invisible forcefield not only kept the beams from hitting the machine, but sent them flying back towards him.

As the blasts hit his suit, Tony was sent flying backwards. He tried to get his thrusters to work, but they were too damaged. They could only sputter and spark in their attempts to light. He was about to start panicking when he felt himself land on something.

“Got you,” Lucifina said. “Hm. For some reason, I expected this suit to weigh more.”

“It’s the alloys,” he replied. “They’re stronger and lighter than the usual metals. Thanks, by the way.”

“No problem. Where do you want me to set you down at?”

He nodded his head towards a second, much smaller landing pad. “Right there,” he instructed.

Flying him down to the spot he had indicated, Lucifina’s eyes narrowed. Loki was watching them from a concrete balcony near the landing pad. “What should I do?”

Part of the floor rose up and began to spin around him, removing parts of his suit. “Use your fancy light magic to get past that energy barrier.” Before she could argue angst him, Tony was walking away.

“But it’s an entirely different kind of energy!” she called out, but he either didn’t hear her or ignored her. Sighing, she looked back up at the machine. “Whatever kind of energy is being used, I can’t control it…but maybe…Hm.” She flew back up to the roof and landed on the gravel. She went over to the laptop connected to the device, her brows furrowing as she leaned over and read the screen.

“You can’t do anything,” Selvig cackled. “It’s far too late. Any minute now, it’ll show—”

“Erik, no offense, but unless it’s about how to turn this thing off, I don’t care.” Biting her lower lip, she tried to figure out the coding and equations flying by on the screen in front of her, but it was to little use. Not only was she unfamiliar with the kind of science at use here, but she was also horribly behind on technology. 

‘If we survive, remind me to have Lusala give me a rundown of the technology being used nowadays,’ she thought, moving away from the machine.

_‘I will do my best, child. But please, do try to be optimistic.’_

‘Sorry.’ She held her hand up to the machine, slowly reaching out towards it until she could feel the pulsing of the barrier around it. “Definitely not light energy.”

_‘Whatever it is, it’s powerful,’_ Seraph told her. _‘I haven’t felt something like that in centuries. Not since I was brought here to earth.’_  

Lucifina summoned a bit of light and flicked it at the barrier. It sparked and shot back towards her. Catching it in her palm, she let it dissolve away. She opened her mouth, about to say something to Selvig when there was a loud crash from below. Her eyes shot open and she raced to the edge of the roof.

There was Tony, plummeting towards the ground. Just then, a large red-and-gold mass shot out of the building and raced after him. Judging by how Tony wasn’t flailing and screaming in terror, she figured it had to be one of his iron suits. But he was falling awfully fast and she wasn’t sure if the suit would get to him in time.

Just as she was about to jump over the edge to go after him, the machine let out a high-pitched whine. Before she had the chance to look over her shoulder, the barrier shot outwards from the machine, slamming into her and knocking her over the edge of the roof. Before she could fall very far, she spread her wings, bringing her descent to an abrupt halt. 

“What the hell…?” She turned around in the air, watching as a beam of white-blue energy shot upwards from the machine and into the sky. 

The beam tore a hole in the sky, replacing the white clouds and blue atmosphere with a view of deep space, far off stars, and strange creatures starting to fly through on what looked to be space chariots.

The Chitauri.

“Right, army,” Tony said, his voice clearer and less crackly now that he was in an undamaged suit. “Let’s get to work.” He flew past her, looking like little more than a blur.

“Right behind you.” From seemingly thin air, she summoned her sword and shield as she took off after Tony.

_‘Child, I want you to gather a ball of light in your palm and compress it down as small you possibly can.’_

‘Why?’

_‘Remember how I told you that you essentially leveled up? I believe you’re strong enough to learn a new ability. Now please, do as I said.’_

Despite thinking that now wasn’t a good time for a magic lesson, Lucifina did as she was instructed. As she flew towards the aliens, she gathered the light into her palm of her shield arm and started to compress it down. It was a bit hard for her to concentrate, given that she was flying right towards an army of hostile aliens, but she managed.

‘Okay, I’ve got it as compressed as I can get it,’ she thought, bringing her sword through the chest of one of the aliens. Now that she was closer, she saw that each chariot held two Chitauri: A driver and a gunner. ‘Now what?’

_‘Take aim and release it.’_

After slicing through two more of the aliens as they flew past, she pointed her arm straight ahead and released the light. It shot out in a white-blue beam, similar in color to the blade of her sword, and went through the head of an approaching chariot driver. A smoldering hole was left in its wake.

“I can shoot laser beams now?!” she exclaimed out loud. Gathering up more light into her palm, she shot the chest of another alien.

_‘Though minute amounts, it does use magic, so be wary of your energy while using it.’_

‘Got it.’

She didn’t have time to revel in her newfound power, as more and more Chitauri were flooding out of the hole. Together, she and Tony flew around, trying to take out as many of the aliens as possible. But the sheer amount coming through the portal was starting to overwhelm them.

Natasha’s voice suddenly filled Lucifina’s ear. “Stark, Aza, we’re heading northeast.”

“What, did you stop for takeout?” Tony replied, a bit of a grunt to his voice as he fired his repulsors. “Head up Park—I’m going to lay ‘em out for you.” 

Lucifina glanced over at Tony as he started to fly away from the area of the tower. The few seconds of distraction were enough time for one of the chariots to fly at her, the driver doing a hard turn so that the gunner’s part of the chariot slammed into her. She swore as she was knocked backwards, falling a few yards before she was able to right herself. 

As she righted herself, however, she could see another blur racing towards the area—not from the hole in the sky, but from the eastern horizon. As it wasn’t green, she could only assume that Thor had arrived. 

‘But even with him, I don’t think the six of us can handle all these Chitauri.’

_‘Battles with worse odds have been fought and won_ , Seraph told her. _Concentrate on the fight and on the status of your allies—those are the most important things to concentrate on.’_

‘I’m trying to.’ Folding in her wings, she let herself fall through the air, landing on a passing chariot. She slammed her sword through the gunner’s chest, twisting it as she pulled the blade out. With the driver, she grabbed the back of its head only to send a laser through it. 

As she hopped off the chariot, it slammed into another alien pair who then slammed into a third and then a fourth pair. 

“Nice one, Aza,” she heard Tony compliment her.

“Luci,” came Steve’s voice, “we’ve got a busload of people trapped down here that could use your help!” 

“Got it. Be right there.” She winced as she felt a few shots from the aliens hit her; they weren’t particularly painful, feeling more akin to paintball hits than anything, but the fact she had felt them at all had taken her by surprise. For the most part, while she was in angelic form, projectiles merely bounced off of her. Seraph had once told it that was that it was an unconscious magic that made her fairly invulnerable.

So long as she had magical energy to channel into it, the invulnerability would remain in place. 

‘Guess I can add alien weaponry to the small list of things that can pierce it,’ she thought.

Flying down towards the bus, she could see that it was full of terrified passengers, but how many, she couldn’t quite make out. A swarm of Chitauri covered it, clawing at the windows as they tried to break through. The safety glass was doing its job, though, and the aliens had only managed to scratch it at this point. From inside the bus, screams of terror could be heard, though the sounds were somewhat muted.

Folding in her wings, she felt herself greatly speeding up as she dove. Bringing her shield in front of her, she braced it with both arms. She rammed into the lineup of aliens, feeling their bodies crunch and crack with the impact. The force and speed behind the attack sent them flying, clearing them away from the bus and the people inside.

Lucifina landed on the ground and, grabbing hold of the emergency exit door, she easily yanked it off the bus. “I know you’re all scared out of your minds right now, but I need you all to stay calm and listen to me,” she told them. Looking around at the passengers, she judged there to be at least twenty of them. “I need you all to get out of here in an orderly fashion—elderly and disabled first.” She glanced over her shoulder as there was an explosion down the road. Unfurling her wings, she curled them around the back of the bus, giving the exit door plenty of cover.

Though it felt like hours getting the passengers out, only a few minutes had passed. Somehow, they had managed to stay relatively calm and were no longer screaming; Lucifina wondered if they had gone into shock over the situation. Either way, she was thankful they were listening to her and even helping one another. The majority of the group were young adults, though there were about five elders, one of whom was in a wheelchair. He was willing to abandon it, however, knowing it would slow them down, and chose to instead be carried by a young man who clearly worked out.

Keeping her wings folded over the group, she started to lead them towards a subway entrance. In her ear, she could hear the other Avengers bantering with one another as they fought the Chitauri. In her mind, she could hear Seraph giving her reassurance that she was doing a good job and that she just needed to stay focused.

But staying focused was hard when one was guiding a group of civilians through a city being ravaged by hostile aliens. _Especially_ when she could hear the screams of terror and pain from other civilians.

“They’re coming at us!” one of the women suddenly screamed.

Looking up, Lucifina saw two chariots racing towards them with three more of the aliens coming at them on the ground. “You’re almost there—I’ll handle those guys and you get to the subway!” she ordered. She kept her wings unfurled, shielding the civilians as she fired a laser into one of the chariot drivers. The chariot spiraled out of control and did a nose dive right into the ground. Another laser was aimed at the other chariot driver, but at the last second, it swerved and avoided the blast.

Only, as it swerved, it flew right into a lamp post. Both the post and the driver crumpled over due to the impact, but the gunner was able to throw itself to the ground, away from the wreck.

With four Chitauri now converging on her, she held her shield up, blocking the blasts from their guns. As they got closer to her, she glanced out of the corner of her eye; the civilians were nearly all in the subway by now. Though a few were still above ground, she suddenly brought her wings forward, smacking the aliens forward and within reach of her.

Summoning her sword, she slammed her shield into the face of one alien while bringing her blade through the neck of another. One of them, wielding a sort of bayonet, jabbed forward and got her in the gut. She swore as pain filled her torso only for it to amplify as the alien pulled the trigger.

It felt like the wind had been knocked from her, but she forced herself to push through the pain. The blue blade glinted in the midday sun as she swung it into the alien’s neck and its head landed on the ground a few yards away.

She raised her hand to fire a laser at the fourth alien, but it had disappeared. Frowning, she brought her wings in and looked around. Then, from the corner of her eye, she found it: It was scuttling its way towards a pair of the civilians she had been helping, a young mother and her child. The mother was on the ground, her knees bleeding and one of her shoes missing.

Before the alien could get within ten feet of the woman, however, it keeled over. A smoldering hole had been left in its head.

“Are either of you hurt?” Lucifina asked, hurrying over.

“My heel broke,” the woman winced, clutching her child to her chest. “I think I twisted my ankle because of it.” She was looking around with wide, panicked eyes and her child, sensing its mother’s fear, was beginning to fuss and whine. “What’s going on? What are these things?!”

“Aliens.” She reached down and removed the woman’s other heel before starting to channel her healing magic into her. “That’s all I really know, but we’re doing our best to stop them.” With caution, she then started to help the woman to her feet.

The woman stared down at her ankle in shock; there was no more pain. “A-are you really an angel?” she stammered, looking up— _way_ up—at Lucifina.

“Not in the Christian sense.” She held her wing up as more Chitauri flew by, shooting at them. “Go! Get in the subway!” She ushered the woman forward, keeping her wing up until the woman and child disappeared down into the subway.

Taking to the air again, she flew straight at a chariot in a game of chicken. Neither she nor the driver veered from their position, with the driver bracing for a head-on impact. When the chariot was just yards away, Lucifina suddenly folded in her wings.

She fell down a few inches, landing right on the front of the chariot. With a little hop, she flipped over the driver and stabbed her sword into its back. She continued to turn in the air, bringing the flailing alien up in an arc over her head. As her feet touch the base of the chariot, she slammed the driver into the gunner.

Then, with another little hop, she flew away as the chariot raced towards the concrete below.

She had just spotted the other Avengers and was flying towards them when a deafening roar came from the portal above. Turning around, she bobbed in place as her eyes widened in horror.

From the portal, an absolutely _massive_ creature was flying out. It looked like a mixture between an eel, a shark, and a tank. There was thick armor plating covering its back and its mouth was full of rows of sharp teeth.

“…I have officially seen the ugliest thing in the universe,” murmured Lucifina.

_‘I’m going to have to agree with you, child. I have seen many hideous creatures in my life, but nothing as disgusting as that thing.’_

“Stark, Luci—you two seeing this?” came Steve’s voice.

“Uh—I’m seeing, but working on believing,” Tony replied.

“You’d have to be blind to not see that piece of work,” Lucifina added.

“Where’s Banner?” Tony then asked. “Has he shown up yet?”

“…Banner?” Steve sounded a bit confused by his inquiry.

“Just keep me posted.”

“Luci, is there _any_ way you can keep that thing distracted?”

Watching as Tony flew at the leviathan, her brows knit tightly together. “I…I don’t think so. If I blind it, there’s no telling what kind of damage it’ll cause. I could try luring it, but something tells me it knows to go for bigger targets.” Her speech was occasionally interrupted by grunts and curses as she fought off more of the Chitauri.

A loud cry suddenly left her mouth as one of the chariots flew by her and the gunner grabbed onto her wing. Before she had time to react, the driver spun the chariot around, flinging the gunner’s portion to the side. Using the momentum, the gunner threw her through the windowed wall of a building. Enough force had been used that she bounced a few times before rolling to a halt.

Lucifina groaned as she rolled onto her side, pieces of glass falling out of her hair and wings. “ _That_ wasn’t very nice,” she mumbled, shaking her head. More glass went flying; looking up, she saw people in formal business attire staring at her in a mixture of terror and awe. Their shock grew as she stood up—she almost had to duck due to the ceiling.

“Get to a lower floor, help anyone who needs it,” she ordered as she started to run back towards the shattered window. Jumping through the hole, she allowed herself to fall a few yards before spreading her wings.

As she continued to fight, she looked around for the other Avengers. It was a bit hard, trying to spot them down on the ground—Natasha and Clint somewhat blended in. Steve, however, stuck out like a sore thumb in his bright blue suit. Tony…was nearly impossible to keep track of, being that he was flying around just as much as her. As for Thor—well, the lighting bolts told her where he was still at Stark Tower.

_‘How are you holding up, child?’_

‘Starting to feel some of these gun hits.’

_‘You’re not healing yourself.’_

‘I am too. Just…just enough to keep me fighting. I need to save my magic in case something happens to one of the others. Or in case I need to use the Soul Fire.’

_‘I’m fairly certain you won’t have need of the Soul Fire yet, child. These beings aren’t worthy of its potency…and Loki seems to be fairly skilled in mind magic, so he may not suffer the entirety of its effects.’_

‘Yeah, I’ve noticed that.’ She frowned, remembering how just the previous day, Loki had broken into her mind. ‘Trust me, though: I’m doing okay. If I get any serious wounds, I’ll heal myself well.’

_‘You had better. Because if you don’t…’_

‘I know, I know.’ She chuckled. ‘You’ll take over. And we don’t want that, given what it does to you. Ah, there they are.’ Spotting the majority of the group below, she started to fly down towards them. She squeaked as a bolt of lightning suddenly struck just feet in front of her. Following the bolt was Thor, who gave her a quick, apologetic nod as he headed for the ground.

She started to follow him, but a dark mass caught her attention. Looking up, she saw a group of about ten chariots racing right for the group. A quick glance at the ground told her the others were oblivious of its coming.

‘Seraph, how big can I make those lasers?’

_‘I don’t recommend making them much larger than you have been, but you_ can _—'_

Not needing to hear more, Luci flew in closer to the other Avengers. As she did so, she unsummoned her sword and shield, choosing to instead charge up her magic.

_‘Are you positive you want to do this, child? It’s going to take a great deal of your energy!’_

‘There’s no time for them to react.’ Her arms, shoulders, and neck tensed up as she did her best to contain the growing magical energies in her palms. She had only ever handled this much energy once before: The first and only time she had used the Soul Fire. Her upper body started to quake with the effort and it became hard to even keep herself in the air.

When the group of chariots was within twenty yards of the group, she forced her arms up and released the energy. Watching with clenched teeth as the two large beams shoot towards the Chitauri, she attempted to keep control of them. She could—but only _just_. The lasers shot straight out, each taking out three of the chariots before making a sharp U-turn and coming back for the remaining four.

_‘…I…never thought to do that before.’_ Lucifina didn’t often hear such a surprised tone from Seraph.

‘Honestly, I didn’t think that it’d work. Glad it did, though.’

Lowering herself to the ground, she panted and looked around. There were still hundreds of the Chitauri clinging to buildings and flying around on chariots; it seemed like they hadn’t even made a dent in the army’s numbers.

“I didn’t know you could that.”

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Natasha backing in towards her. “I didn’t either,” she retorted. Still panting, she brought forth her sword and her shield again. “Don’t think I’ll be able to again for a while, either.” She rolled her shoulders, hearing some crunching noises come from her aching muscles.

“Not quite parting the Red Sea, but still pretty good,” Tony commented. He, too, was backing up—as were the others. They all had their backs to one another, keeping an eye on the Chitauri.

“Thor, what’s the story upstairs?” Steve asked.

“The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable.”

“He’s right,” Tony said. “We have to deal with these guys.”

Natasha glanced over at them. “How do we do this?” She knew the odds were towering against them.

Steve’s eyes narrowed slightly as he started to formulate a plan. “As a team.”

Thor glanced over at him. “I have unfinished business with Loki.”

“Yeah, get in line,” Clint retorted, drawing an arrow from his quiver. He nocked it to his bow, but didn’t draw it just yet.

“Save it,” Steve suddenly ordered. “Loki’s going to keep this fight focused on us and that’s what we need. Without him, these things could run wild. We got Stark and Luci up top; they’re going to need us—” Movement in the corner of his eye suddenly caught his attention. Looking at the road, he blinked in shock.

Riding towards them on an old, beat-up motorcycle and completely ignoring the invasion around him was Bruce. He soon brought the bike to a halt and dismounted, walking over.

“So, this all seems horrible,” he casually commented.

Natasha gave him a small, apologetic smile. “I’ve seen worse.”

A sheepish smile came to his lips. “Sorry.”

She shook her head. “No, we could use a little worse.” She then looked down as she felt a hand on her shoulder only to feel a calming warmth radiate through her body.

“Stark?” Steve said into his ear piece, giving Lucifina an appreciative nod as she set a hand on his shoulder before pulling it away a second later. “We got him.”

“Banner?”

“Just like you said.”

Though they couldn’t see his face, the group could tell he was smirking. “Then tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.”

The group watched as Tony came flying around the corner of a building. Crashing through it behind him was the leviathan.

“I—I don’t see how that’s a party,” Natasha retorted, her eyes wide.

Lucifina cursed under her breath as she watched Tony fly down towards the street, the monstrous alien following behind him. Cars, sign posts, and asphalt went flying as they hurriedly approached.

“Doctor Banner,” Steve said, his voice shaking ever so slightly. “Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.”

A wry smile came to Bruce’s lips as he started to walk forward. “That’s my secret, Captain,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. At this point, the leviathan was only a few dozen yards away. “I’m _always_ angry.” As he turned back to face the alien, his body started to grow and change color.

In the blink of an eye, he had turned into the Hulk. He brought both his fists down on the leviathan’s face, stopping it in its tracks. But the sudden stop worked against him; the monster’s back half started to raise up and over as it flipped. Pieces of metal armor flew off of the alien, leaving large dents in the road as they hit the ground.

Tony fired a rocket into the creature’s now-exposed body. Her eyes widening, Lucifina ducked slightly and shielded herself with both her wings and her shield. Above them, the explosion tore through flesh, cartilage, and metal and sent it raining down on the group.

“Just what I’ve always wanted—a monster gut shower,” she grumbled, speaking more to herself than everyone else.

“I’m sure a little holy water will get the stains out.” Tony landed on the ground between her and Hulk.

“Guys.” Natasha pointed up at the portal.

Turning, Lucifina looked up only to find three more leviathans and hundreds of Chitauri flying out of the portal. “Ah, fu—”

“Call it, Cap,” Tony said suddenly.

“Alright, listen up,” Steve began, “until we can close that port up there, we’re going to use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof,” he pointed at a building nearby, “eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, Luci, you two got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”

Clint looked between Tony and Lucifina. “One of you want to give me a lift?”

Tony nodded and grabbed the back of his shirt. “Right. Better clench up, Legolas.” The two shot into the air.

“Let me know if anyone needs healing,” Lucifina said before also taking to the air. She headed in the opposite direction of Tony and Clint, doing her best to take out any of the aliens as she flew by.

By now, her body was beginning to ache. The constant barrage of energy fire was eating up her invulnerability and, despite having been healed, the stab wound to her gut from earlier was still tender and hurting. She had never pushed herself this far before, though she always had had a feeling she would need to someday.

‘I really should have trained with you more.’

_‘Now’s not the time to regret the past, child.’_

The sound of large guns filled her ears; through the gaps between buildings, she could see the National Guard had arrived with armored Humvees, guns mounted to their roofs.

A chariot suddenly slammed into her back and she felt the burn of multiple hits from an energy gun. With a growl, she reached back, intending to grab hold of the driver, but her hands instead grabbed onto cold, curving metal. Her brows furrowed in confusion, but she didn’t have time to look back as her wrist was grabbed.

She was painfully yanked off the front of the chariot and slammed onto the floor of it. Her ribs creaked as a foot stomped down on her chest and as the air was knocked from her lungs, she looked up to see Loki standing above her.

“We meet again, little girl,” he said, a mischievous smirk on his lips. “This time, however, I’m afraid you won’t get away so easily.” He put more weight on his foot, hearing the cartilage—and possibly some bones—beginning to crack.

Lucifina slammed her fist into his ankle, but he didn’t budge. Clenching her teeth, she tried to hit him again, harder this time, but only succeeded in making him add more weight. More cracking came from her chest and she started to taste blood in her mouth. A sharp pain filled her right side, worsening with every short gasp she was able to take. She tried to hit him with a laser, but he merely waved it away with his own magic; she even tried hitting him with her wings, but he stepped on one with his other foot, keeping it pinned down.

“You’re out of luck, little girl,” he sneered, applying even more weight. There were three distinct cracks and Lucifina cried out in pain, tears welling up in her eyes from the intensity.  “Don’t worry, though—you’re about to join your mother.”

The pain she felt almost instantly turned into anger.

Ignoring her body’s protests, she suddenly brought her legs up and wrapped them around Loki’s hips from behind. Having been taken off guard by the move, Loki swore as he was yanked backwards. He landed with a loud clank thanks to his helmet.

Having used the momentum of his fall to her advantage, Lucifina was back on her feet. Though she knew it wouldn’t do _too_ much damage to the god, she slammed her foot down on the his groin. The grunt of pain that was drawn from his lips was enough for her.

“You used to be my favorite god,” she wheezed, blood rolling down her chin and neck. She stomped on his groin once more, preventing him from speaking. Her chest filling with the familiar warmth of her healing magic, she sent a laser through the gunner’s head before hopping off the chariot.

_‘I’m glad you didn’t stay to try and fight him.’_

‘There’d be no point—if stomping on his crotch like that only made him grunt slightly, then I wouldn’t have been able to _actually_ hurt him.’ She winced as she heard the crunching of the bones and cartilage in her chest moving back into place as they healed. ‘I always forget how disturbing it is to heal my own broken bones…’

_‘Certainly not one of the more pleasant feelings, I must agree.’_

Flying close to buildings, Lucifina did her best to take out as many of the Chitauri clinging to the walls as possible. She was also doing her best to keep an eye on the ground, making sure as few of the aliens broke the perimeter as possible. Being one person—who was injured and quickly losing energy—made that a difficult task.

“I could use some help!” came Natasha’s voice.

“What’s your location?” Lucifina made a U-turn in the air and started to fly back towards Stark Tower. About four hundred yards in front of her, she could see Natasha clinging to a Chitauri driver as she flew by. “Never mind, I see you.” Speeding up, she followed after them; thankfully, it wasn’t a very long chase. Within a minute, she had caught up and, dissipating her sword, she scooped up Natasha.

“Never thought I’d find myself in the arms of an angel,” Natasha joked.

Lucifina groaned. “Not you, too.”

A small smirk came to her lips. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Thanks for the healing, by the way.”

She shook her head slightly, chuckling. “Where do you want dropped off?”

Natasha nodded towards the top of Stark Tower. “Up there.” She glanced over at the angel’s face; it was covered in a mixture of dirt, dust, and blood. Two, thin trails had been cleaned away by her tears, but they were quickly getting dirty again. On top of that, the white of her robes was now a reddish-grey and ripped in many areas while pieces of her armor had major dents in it. “You’re looking pretty rough. You doing okay?”

“To be honest, I think Hulk is the only one doing okay,” replied Lucifina. “I’ve only got a small amount of magic left that I’m trying to conserve.”

“Is that why you’re not healing yourself fully?” Her tone was partly scolding, like an older sibling.

She felt her cheeks grow a bit warm; it was one thing to get scolded in such a way by Seraph, but to be scolded by someone else…? “I don’t want any of you dying on my watch,” she replied simply.

There was an explosion nearby; glancing over, both women watched as Loki went flying towards the concrete balcony of the tower.

Reaching the roof, Lucifina lowered Natasha down onto the gravel. From the corner of her eye, she saw a mass of green. Turning her head, she watched as the Hulk jumped up and over the balcony. Seconds later, the sound of shattering glass could be heard and the building slightly shuddered with the impact of something.

“You good?” she asked Natasha.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” She gave the younger woman a reassuring smile and nod before heading towards the machine.

Lucifina dove off the building. The momentary respite had made her realize just how much her body hurt—her limbs felt like lead and her torso felt like it had been run over by a steamroller. But she fought through it, focusing as hard as she could on the task at hand.

She intended to return to the outer perimeter, but as she continued to dive, she could see Thor and Steve fighting back to back in the middle of the street. Dozens of Chitauri were around them and it almost looked like the two Avengers were struggling to keep them at bay. Readying her shield, she went in for another fly-by shield bash.

Though the bash was successful and sent at least ten of the aliens flying, she had miscalculated her aim somewhat. She slammed into and through a bus before hitting the ground and skidding. Shaking her head as she came to a halt, she sat up only to find that she had left a small trench in the asphalt.

Thor came over to her, offering her a hand up. “Are you alright, Mistress of Light?” he questioned, brows furrowed slightly.

“Lucifina,” she corrected, wincing slightly as she stood. “Or Seraph when I look like this. But yes, I’m fine—for the most part, anyway.” Giving Thor a reassuring nod, she watched as he hurried back towards Steve. She then looked around only for her breath to catch in her throat.

Lucifina had been in disaster situations before. She had found herself in the right places at the right times to stop terrorists or to help save civilians from natural disasters. She had seen a laboratory of scientists and her own mother massacred in front of her.

But she had _never_ witnessed death and destruction on this large of scale before.

_‘Focus, child. You must **focus**. There is still a battle being fought. There are still those left alive who need protecting.’_

She stiffly nodded and felt the hilt of her sword materializing in her hand. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes. There are still people left to fight for.” Swallowing hard, she hurried over to Steve and Thor, joining them with fighting off the growing crowd of Chitauri.

After what felt like forever, they had managed to thin the number down a bit. A good portion of them had been brought down thanks to Thor. He had used the vehicles around them to his advantage and sent a massive electrical charge through them, frying the aliens.

Natasha suddenly cried out. “I can close it!” Her voice sounded strained, like she was fighting against something stronger than her. “Can anyone hear me? I can shut the portal down!”

“Do it!” Steve shouted, blocking an energy beam. It bounced off his shield and into a different Chitauri’s body.

“No, wait!” Tony interjected.

“Stark, these things are _still_ coming,” Steve argued.

“I got a nuke coming in,” Tony explained. He heard some of the other Avengers swear. “It’s gunna blow in less than a minute. And I know _just_ where to put it.”

The three looked up at the sky, seeing the tiny dot that was Tony as he flew towards the portal. They watched with baited breath as he climbed higher and higher with the nuke. Even the aliens around them seemed to stop in their tracks to watch him disappear through the portal only to start convulsing and drop to the ground seconds later.

Behind them, the last leviathan let out a roar before crash-landing atop a building dead as the rest.

The Chitauri were defeated.

Tony’s plan had worked.

But there was a problem: He hadn’t come back out through the portal yet.

Lucifina bit her lower lip as she glanced over at Steve. His brows were furrowed in concentration as he stared, unblinking, at the portal. Looking back at it, she could see an enormous cloud of fire and smoke towards it. She could feel her heart racing inside her chest and could hear it beating in her ears as she searched for any sign of Tony.

“Close it,” Steve ordered Natasha, his voice solemn.

“But—but Tony!” Lucifina argued. “He could still—"

The portal began closing, the explosion still racing towards it. As it shut, all signs of space and the explosion disappeared from view. But there was  _one_ thing left behind: A tiny dot that was steadily growing bigger and bigger as it headed towards the ground.

Tony.

“Son of a gun,” Steve murmured, a grin on his lips. But just as quickly as it had arrived, it disappeared.

“He’s not slowing down,” Thor pointed out, worry in his voice. He started to spin Mjölnir, intent on flying up to rescue Tony.

Before he could lift himself off the ground, though, a mass of green flew forward and snatched Tony. The three watched as Hulk caught himself on a building and slid down a few yards , clutching Tony to his side. He jumped down to the ground, landing hard on his side a few yards up the road. As Lucifina, Thor, and Steve ran over, he dropped Tony off of him, grunting in what could be taken for pain or for annoyance.

Sliding to his knees beside Tony, Thor tore the metal faceplate from his helmet and exposed his face. Grief lined his features and his eyes were closed as if he were sleeping. His skin had grown pale and, as Lucifina discovered when she set her palm on his forehead, almost deathly cold.

 “Can you…?” Steve asked, his voice bearing a bit of guilt.

“I don’t—” She let out a yelp as Hulk took them all by surprise by roaring in anger.

Tony’s eyes shot open and he cried out in surprise; again, Lucifina yelped and threw herself away from him in shock. “What the hell!?” he shouted. He lifted his head and looked around, panic now filling his eyes. “What just happened!? Please tell me nobody kissed me!”

A relieved laugh left Steve’s mouth as he allowed himself to finally take a knee and a moment to breathe. “We won,” he told him.

“Alright,” Tony said, letting his head fall back down with a clink. “Hey, alright. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just…take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma?”

“It was one of my favorite dishes growing up,” Lucifina chuckled. The relief of their victory was washing over her like her healing magic. But, instead of making her feel better, it left her feeling exhausted.

“There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here,” Tony continued. “I don’t know what it is, but I want to try it.”

“It’s delicious, that’s what.”

Though there was a small smile on his lips, Thor looked up at Stark Tower. “We’re not finished yet,” he told the group.

Tony looked around at them, watching as their expressions changed from relief to a more stern look. “…And then shawarma after?”


End file.
